Download Development of independent Ukraine (1994

Ukraine from the earliest times till the middle of the
17 century. Time of the Cossacks-Hetman state. Ukraine under the
th
reign of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires.
Plan
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Early history
Kyivan Rus’
Period of Lithuanian and Polish rule
The Cossacks.
National liberation movement under the leadership of Bohdan
Khmelnytskiy. Narrowing of the autonomy and liquidation of Zaporizhian
Sich.
6. Ukraine under the direct imperial Russian rule.
7. Western Ukraine under the Habsburg monarchy.
The revolution of 1848.
1. Early history.
Ukraine means borderland. It is an appropriate name for a land that lies
on the south-eastern edge of Europe, on the threshold of Asia, along the fringes
of the Mediterranean world, and astride the once important border between
sheltering forests and the open steppe.
Flowing southward into the Black Sea are three major river systems that
provide Ukraine with an adequate water supply: the mighty 2285-kmlong Dnieper (Dnipro), wich bisects the land, the southern Buh, and the Dnister.
The climate is generally moderate. Ukraine encompasses about 600,000 sq. Km
and extends approximately 1300 km from west to east and 900 km from north
to south.
Lying astride the main routes between Europe and Asia, Ukraine was
repeatedly exposed to various frequently competing cultures. By means of
the Black Sea, Ukrainegained access to the invIhorating civilisation of Greece,
both ancient and Byzantine. In contrast, its position on the western fringe of the
great Eurasian steppe exposed it to repeated invasions by warring nomads and
the bitter struggle against them sapped the country's human and material
resources. It gave rise to the Cossacks, the frontier warriors who became
archetypical figures in Ukrainian history and culture. In Ukraine the earliest
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agrarian civilisations in Europe developed. Until very recently, agriculture has
been the hallmark of Ukrainian life.
The Earliest inhabitants
The earliest traces of human habitation in Ukraine reach back about
150,00 years. The earliest human inhabitants still possessed the signs of the
primitive origins. By approximately 40,000 BC in the midst of the ice age the
cro-magnons (or Homo sapiens) appeared, the species from which modern man
is descended. During the Neolithic period, which lasted in Ukraine from about
6000 to 2000 BC, mankind experienced more profound changes than in the
previous two to three million years. Instead of merely gathering and hunting
food human beings had finally learned to produce it.
Human settlement in Ukraine has been documented into distant
prehistory. The late Neolithic Trypillian culture (The Trypillian culture is a
late Neolithic archaeological culture that flourished between ca. 5500 BC and
2750 BC in the Dniester-Dnieper region of modern-day Romania, Moldova,
and Ukraine. The Trypilians built the largest towns in Europe, each of them
with 10,000 or 15,000 people. The settlements would be burned every 60-80
2
years with the culture moving elsewhere.) flourished from about 4500 BC to
3000 BC. The Copper Age people of the Trypillian culture resided in the
western part.
During
the Iron
Age,
these
were
followed
by
the Dacians, Cimmerians (The Cimmerians were
ancient equestrian
nomads who, according to Herodotus, originally inhabited the region north of
the Caucasus and the Black Sea, in what is now Ukraine and Rus’sia, in
the 8th and 7th centuries BC.), Scythians (The Scythians were anAncient
Iranian people of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who throughout Classical
Antiquity dominated the Pontic-Caspian steppe, known at the time
as Scythia.),Sarmatians (The Sarmatians were
a
people
of Ancient
Iranian origin. They migrated from Central Asia to the Ural Mountains around
fifth century B.C. and eventually settled in most of southern
European Rus’sia, Ukraine, and the eastern Balkans.) among other nomadic
peoples. The Scythian Kingdom existed here from 750 BC to 250 BC. Along
with ancient Greek colonies founded in the 6th century BC on the north-eastern
shore of the Black Sea, the colonies of Tyras, Olbia , Hermonassa, continued
as Roman andByzantine cities until the 6th century AD.
3
The best known of the early agrarian peoples on the territory of presentday Ukraine were associated with the so-called Trypillian culture, which
originated along the Dnister, Buh and Prut rivers. And later expanded to the
Dniper. At their high point between 3500 and 2700 BC, they lived in large
villages with as many as 600-700 inhabitants. Organized in clans along
patriarchal lines, they often lived in long, narrow dwellings in which each
nuclear family had its own clay over and partitioned space. The decorations on
their pottery, characterized by flowing designs of ocher, black and white,
reflected a culture rich in magical rituals and supernatural beliefs.
Even more important was the introduction of the wooden plow, which
definitely made agriculture a more dependable.
In the 3rd century AD, the Goths (the Goths were a heterogeneous East
Germanic tribe. Originating in semi-legendary Scandza, believed to be
somewhere in modernGötaland, Sweden, a Gothic population had crossed
the Baltic Sea before the 2nd century) arrived in the lands of Ukraine around
250 AD to 375 AD.
The Goths stayed in the area but came under the sway of
the Huns (The Huns were a group of nomadic pastoral people who, appearing
from beyond the VOlha, migrated into Europe c.AD 370 and built up an
enormous empire in Europe. They were possibly the descendants of
the Xiongnu who had been northern neighbours of Chinathree hundred years
before and may be the first expansion of Turkic people across Eurasia) from the
370s.
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With the power vacuum created with the end of Hunnic and Gothic
rule, Slavic tribes (The Slavic Peoples are an ethnic and linguistic branch
of Indo-European peoples, living mainly in eastern and central Europe. From
the early 6th century they spread from their original homeland (most commonly
thought to be in Eastern Europe) to inhabit most of eastern Central Europe,
Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Many settled later in Siberia and Central
Asia or emigrated to other parts of the world. Over half of Europe is,
territorially speaking, inhabited by Slavic-speaking communities. Slavic peoples
are
classified
geographically
and
linguistically
into West
Slavic (including Czechs,Kashubians, Moravians, Poles, Silesians, Slovaks and
Sorbs), East
Slavic (including BelaRus’ians, Rus’sians, Rus’yns and Ukrainians), and South
Slavic (includingBosniaks, Bulgarians, Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Se
rbs and Slovenes) began to expand over much of what is now Ukraine during
the 5th century, and beyond to the Balkans from the 6th century.
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2. Kyivan Rus’.
According to legends, Kyiv was founded in the 5th century by three
brothers Kiy, Shchek and Khoriv and their sister Lebid.
In the 8th century, the territory of Kyivan Rus’was inhabited by a number
of tribes who spoken a common proto-Slavic language, pagan beliefs. The
ancestors
of
theUkrainians included
the
Polianians, Siverianians, Derevlianians, Dulibians, White Croatians, Ulychians,
and
Tivertsians.
The
proto-Rus’sian Krivichians,
Viatichians,
andRadimichians and the proto-BeloRussian Drehovichians also lived on the
lands that eventually constituted Kyivan Rus’. The Polianians were the largest
and most developed of the tribes. None of the tribes, however, was able to
create
a
viable
state,
and
in
the
9th
century
6
the Varangians from Scandinavia conquered the tribes and laid the groundwork
for the Kyivan Rus’ state.
According to some sources, the first Varangian rulers of Rus’
were Askold and Dyr.
In 882,
Kyiv
was
conquered
from
the Khazars by
the Varangian noble Oleh who started the long period of rule of
the Rurikid princes. During this time, several Slavic tribes were native to
Ukraine, including the Polans, the Drevlyans, the Severians, the Ulichs,
the Tiverians, and the Dulebes. Situated on lucrative trade routes, Kyiv quickly
prospered as the center of the powerful Slavic state of Kyivan Rus’.
Oleh is credited with moving the capital of Rus’ from Novgorod the
Great to Kyiv and, in doing so, laid the foundation for the powerful state
of Kyivan Rus’. According to East Slavic chronicles, Oleh was supreme ruler of
the Rus’ from 882 to 912. Prince Ihor followed him, in 912, who not only
continued external raids but also had to fight insubordinate tribes of Ulitchs and
Derevlans. He died during a battle with Derevlans in 945. After Ihor's death, his
wife Olha ruled Kyivan Rus’ as regent (945-c. 963) for their son,Svyatoslav.
At the start of her reign, Olha spent great effort to avenge her husband's
death at the hands of the Drevlians, and succeeded in slaughtering many of
them and interring some in a ship burial, while still alive. She is reputed to have
scalded captives to death and another, probably apocryphal, story tells of how
she destroyed a town hostile to her. She asked that each household present her
with a dove as a gift, then tied burning papers to the legs of each dove which
she then released to fly back to their homes. Each avian incendiary set fire to
the thatched roof of their respective home and the town was destroyed. More
importantly in the long term, Olha changed the system of tribute gathering
(poliudie) in what may be regarded as the first legal reform recorded in Eastern
Europe. She was the first Rus’ ruler to convert to Christianity, either in 945 or
in 957.
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Known as ‘the Conqueror,’ Sviatoslav Ihorovych attempted to expand his
territory to the Danube River, defeating the Bulgarians and establishing
Pereiaslavets on theDanube.
In 980, Prince Volodymyr defeated all his brothers and unified the
country into one powerful state with Kyiv as the capital. He adopted
Christianity in 988 and started to convert the population, which had up to then,
worshiped Pagan gods. Force was often used against those who resisted. He
produced silver and gold coins with his portrait on one side and the trident on
the reverse side (The trident is Coat of Arms of present day Ukraine). In History
he is known as Volodymyr the Great or Saint Volodymyr. One of the largest
Kyivan cathedrals is dedicated to him. The University of Kyiv was named after
the man who both civilized and Christianized Kyivan Rus’.
After his death in 1015, fighting and assassinations between his sons
ensued, resulting in victory for prince Yaroslav in 1019.
8
Yaroslav the Great consolidated nearly whole of his father's territory,
defeated the Pechenegs and became one of the most powerful rulers in Europe.
Yaroslav promoted family ties with other kingdoms, built many churches,
improved Kyiv's fortifications, introduced laws and established courts. He
sponsored the construction of the Saint Sophia Cathedral in 1037. Yaroslav was
a notable patron of book culture and learning. The process of internal
consolidation begun earlier was greatly furthered by Yaroslav the Wise's
codification of the law in Rus’kaia Pravda.he divided the country between his
sons, who after his death in 1054, started to fight among themselves and divide
their land between their sons. This resulted in a number of small principalities
which not only fought each other, but also had to defend themselves from
marauding Turkish and Polovetsian hordes, who plundered the countryside.
9
In 1097 all princes agreed to stop fighting between themselves. In 1103
they united their forces under leadership of prince Monomakh. After death of
Monomakh in 1125 Ukraine remained fragmented into the numerous
principalities, each having their own customs and rules. Gradually Kyiv lost it's
power and influence; many principalities separated.
The quarreling between the princes left Rus’ vulnerable to foreign
attacks, and the invasion of the Mongols in 1236–40 finally destroyed the state.
The principalities never organized a common defense, and in turn each was
conquered and pillaged. Kyiv was thoroughly sacked in 1240 and reduced to a
shadow of its former self.
The political and social institutions of Kyivan Rus’.
From the 10th to the 12th century the Kyivan state underwent significant
sociopolitical changes. Its original component tribes had no political tradition,
and its first rulers viewed their domain simply as an object of exploitation, at
best as a clan possession. Volodymyr the Great was the first ruler to give Rus’
political unity, by way of organized religion. The church provided him with the
concepts of territorial and hierarchical organization; Byzantine notions of
autocracy were adopted by him and his successors to give them the equivalent
of imperial authority. The political traditions introduced by Volodymyr were
based on the principles of territorial indivisibility and dynastic sovereignty. The
seniority system of rule—ascension from elder brother to younger and from the
youngest uncle to the eldest nephew—provided the Riurykide dynasty with a
rotating system of advancement of its members, gave them political experience
in lands they could someday expect to rule from Kyiv, and assured control, by
way of traditional sanctions, of key points of the realm. This system served well
until the reign of Volodymyr Monomakh, but did not survive Kyiv's decline.
The power of the grand prince was maintained by his military strength,
particularly that of his druzhyna, or retinue. Ideologically, his power was
upheld by the church, whose teachings gave him the attributes and
responsibilities of a national leader, judge, and first Christian of the realm.
The grand prince ruled and dispensed justice with the help of viceroys
appointed by him, who were often the sons of the grand prince, of other princes,
of governors, or of military commanders. These representatives of the grand
prince's central power were aided by local administrators—
the desiatski (see Desiatskyi). The grand prince consulted on important state
matters with the Boyar Council, which consisted of his senior retainers and the
local aristocracy of power and wealth.
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The viche (assembly), an important organ already within the tribal
network, resolved all matters on behalf of the population. The city viche,
composed of freemen, decided mainly on questions of war and peace and on the
invitation, recognition, or expulsion of a prince. It became particularly
important in the 12th century during the internecine wars of the princes for the
throne of Kyiv.
In the Princely era, Ukrainian society had its own peculiarities. Its
privileged elite (the boyars and the ‘better people’), which enjoyed full
protection of the law, was not a closed estate; based, as it was, on merit, which
the prince rewarded with grants of land, its membership was dependent on the
will of the prince. Thus even priests' sons and commoners could become
boyars. The towns folk consisted of burghers—mostly merchants and crafts
people—and paupers. There was little difference in status between the wealthy
merchants and the landed boyars. Most freemen were yeomen called smerds
(see Smerd), who lived on their own land or on the land of the prince, paid
taxes, and performed certain duties, such as building fortifications, bridges, and
roads and serving in the levy en masse in times of war; gradually the smerds
became dependent on their lords, and some became tenants or hired laborers on
the land. A smaller catIhory of peasants consisted of zakups (see Zakup)—
impoverished smerds who had become indentured and half-free. The lowest
social stratum in Rus’ consisted of slaves. Male slaves were
called kholopy (see Kholop); usually prisoners of war or the offspring of slaves,
they had no rights as persons and were considered the legal, movable property
of their masters. Certain churchmen and princes, eg, Volodymyr
Monomakh in Volodymyr Monomakh's Statute, tried to improve the lot and
legal status of the slaves.
The economy of Kyivan Rus’.
Relatively little is known about the economy of Kyiv, although there is
no doubt that agriculture was the main activity of the inhabitants. Farming
techniques and implements were naturally primitive and the peasants lived
mostly at a subsistence level. Some animal husbandry was practiced, as was
extensive grain cultivation. Land, particularly after the 11th century, was
privately owned. Most peasants supplemented their agricultural activities with
fishing, trapping, and hunting, especially in the northern forest and foreststepperegions. The forests also supplied wood, the major source of fuel. The
peasants generally lived in small, scattered villages.
The second major component of Kyiv's economy was foreign trade. Not
only were local goods, particularly furs, traded for important items, but much
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profit was made from the simple transshipment of goods along the great trade
routes linking first east and west and later north and south. In the end, it was the
breakdown of the trade route from ‘the Varangians to Byzantium that partially
initiated Kyiv's decline, and it was the emergence of specialized routes linking
the northern principalities to the Hanseatic League of states that furthered the
disintegration of the state.
Western parts of Ukraine - Halychyna (Galicia) and Volynj (Volhynia)
gradually emerged as leading principalities. Prince Roman ruled there in 1199.
His sons succeeded in uniting both principalities into one rich and powerful
state.
Meanwhile, Prince Danylo (son of Prince Roman) established himself in
Halych and his brother Vasylko in Volynj.
Under Danylo’s reign, Galicia–Volhynia was one of the most powerful
states in east central Europe. Demographic growth was enhanced by
immigration from the west and the south, including Germans and Armenians.
Commerce developed due to trade routes linking the Black Sea with
Poland, Germany and the Baltic basin. Major cities, which served as important
economic and cultural centers, were among others: Lviv (where the royal seat
would later be moved by Danylo’s son), Volodymyr-in-Volhynia,
Galych,Kholm, Peremyshl, Drohyczyn and Terebovlya. Galicia–Volhynia was
important enough that in 1252 Danylo was able to marry his son Roman to
the heiress of the Austrian Duchyin the vain hope of securing it for his family.
Another son, Shvarn, married a daughter of Mindaugas, Lithuania's first king,
and briefly ruled that land from 1267–1269.
Danylo founded city Lviv in 1250 as a defense site against Tatars. In
1253 he accepted the royal crown from the pope and effected a short-lived
church union with Rome.
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After King Danylo’s death in 1264, he was succeeded by his son Lev.
Lev moved the capital to Lviv in 1272 and for a time maintained the strength of
Galicia–Volhynia. Unlike his father, who pursued a Western political course,
Lev worked closely with the Mongols, in particular cultivating a close alliance
with the Tatar Khan. After Lev's death in 1301, a period of decline ensued. Lev
was succeeded by his son Yuriy I who ruled for only seven years. Although his
reign was largely peaceful and Galicia–Volhynia flourished economically,
Yuriy I lost Lublin to the Poles (1302) and Transcarpathia to the Hungarians.
From 1308 until 1323 Galicia–Volhynia was jointly ruled by Yuriy I's sons
Andriy and Lev II, who proclaimed themselves to be the kings of Galicia and
Volhynia. They died together in 1323, in battle, fighting against the Mongols,
and left no heirs.
After the extinction of the Rurikid dynasty in Galicia–Volhynia in 1323,
Volhynia passed into the control of the Lithuanian King Liubartas, while
the boyars took control over Galicia. They invited the Polish Prince Boleslaw, a
grandson of Yuriy I, to assume the Galician throne.
The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania divided up
the region between them: King Kazimierz III Wielki took Galicia and Western
Volhynia, while the sister state of Eastern Volhynia together with Kyiv came
under Lithuanian control, 1352–1366.
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3. Period of Lithuanian and Polish rule (1360-1599).
The Lithuanian princes were reasonable rulers. In some cases they were
assimilated where they adopted the local customs, language and religion.
People did not resist them and appreciated their protection from Poland,
Moscow and the Tatars. However, under Polish rule, western Ukraine was
subjected to exploitation and colonization by an influx of people from Poland
and Germany, who were taking over the property and offices from local boyars.
After the Union of Lublin in 1569 and the formation of the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth Ukraine fell under Polish administration, becoming
part of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom. The period immediately following the
creation of the Commonwealth saw a huge revitalisation in colonisation efforts.
Many new cities and villages were founded. New schools spread the ideas of
the Renaissance; Polish peasants who arrived in great numbers were
quickly ruthenised; during this time, most of Ukrainian nobles
becamepolonised and converted to Catholicism, and while most Ruthenianspeaking peasants remained within the Eastern Orthodox Church, social tension
rose. Ruthenian peasants (Ukrainians and some from other nations) who fled
efforts to force them into serfdom came to be known as Cossacks and earned a
reputation for their fierce martial spirit. Some Cossacks were hired by the
Commonwealth (became 'register Cossacks') as soldiers to protect the southeastern borders of Poland from Tatars or took part in campaigns abroad
(like Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny in the battle of Khotyn 1621). Cossack
units were also active in wars between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
and Muscovy.The Lithuanian princes were reasonable rulers. In some cases
they were assimilated where they adopted the local customs, language and
religion. People did not resist them and appreciated their protection from
Poland, Moscow and the Tatars. However, under Polish rule, western Ukraine
was subjected to exploitation and colonization by an influx of people from
Poland and Germany, who were taking over the property and offices from local
boyars.
During the period of 1393-1430 the Grand Dutch of Lithuania was ruled
by the Grand Duke Vytautas, who also is named Vytautas the Great for all the
political and military achievements he brought to Lithuania. During his reign,
the push eastward by the German Order was broken. In 1410 Vytautas, along
with his cousin Yahaylo the King of Poland, won the Battle of Grunwald
(Germany), against the might of the Order that way finishing almost 200 years
of war. He also brought the Christianity to the pagan Lithuania. At the end of
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his era, Lithuania became one of the strongest states in Europe, stretching from
the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea.
In 1400 Lithuania, together with its Ukrainian principalities, separated
under king Vytautas- Yahaylo's cousin. Yahaylo’s younger brother,
Svytryhaylo, opposed this arrangement. Ukrainian principalities under Vytautas
were loosing their national character and independence to Polish influences.
In 1413 a decision was made to allow only Catholics to occupy important
government positions ("Horodlo Privilege"). Wide-spread discrimination
against the Orthodox population followed. Nearly all Ukrainians in those days
were Orthodox, therefore Ukrainian princes and boyars ended up helping
Svytryhaylo in his fight with Vytautas. After Vytautas died in 1430,
Svytryhaylo defended himself from Poles, but by the year 1440 his sphere of
influence was reduced to the Volynj principality.
There was a period of hostilities between Lithuania and Moscow, when
about 1480 Moscow annexed several principalities in eastern Ukraine. Also
several popular uprisings took place. In 1490, a rebellion under Mukha,
occurred in western Ukraine. Mukha sought help from neighboring Moldova. In
1500 in eastern Ukraine, there was an uprising under Prince Mykhaylo
Hlynskiy, who expected help from Moscow and the Tatars. However Poland
and Lithuania, at that time, were very strong and all uprisings were squashed.
Meanwhile, in the South, marauding Tatar hordes converted a large area
of the country into wilderness, without any law or order. It was a very rich part
of Ukraine with productive soil, wild animals and rivers full of fish. It attracted
many adventurous people, who although they had to fight the Tatars there,
would be free from suppression by the Polish and Lithuanian overlords. They
began to organize under Hetmans, thus originating Cossack society.
To defend themselves from the Tatars, they constructed forts called
"Sitch" and amalgamated them into a sort of union, with Zaporizhia as a centre.
It was downstream of the Dnipro river cascades.
In 1552, one of Ukrainian princes, Dmytro Wyshnevetskyi, being among
the Cossacks, built a castle on the island Khortytsya. From there, the Cossacks
conducted raids on Crimean towns sometimes with help from Moscow. Dmytro
wanted to develop Zaporizhia, with help from Lithuania and Moscow, into a
powerful fortress against Tatars and Turks. Being unable to achieve this goal,
he left Zaporizhia in 1561, became involved in a war in Moldova and was
captured and executed by the Turks in 1563.
In spite of that there was a modest revival of Ukrainian culture later in
16th century. Church schools and seminaries were set up, based at first on the
15
properties of Ukrainian magnate Hryhoriy Khodkovych and later on the
holdings of Ostrozkyi princes. A printing industry began, culminating in the
publication of the Bible in a print shop ran by Ivan Fedorovych. Trade and
church brotherhoods sprang up. Schools were established and hospitals became
centers of defense of the Orthodox Church and the fight for justice and equality.
Such a situation was the main cause, which multiplied the influx of
people to Cossack territory, increasing the Cossack’s strength. The Tatars were
pushed out into Crimea and the Cossacks became more daring in their raids on
Turkish cities.
While Ukrainian Cossacks defended not only Ukraine, but also the whole
of eastern Europe from the Turks and Tatar hordes, they were causing
diplomatic problems for Poland because Turkey used Cossack situation as an
excuse for wars against Poland. When Cossack leader, Ivan Pidkova, conquered
Moldova in 1577, the Poles captured and executed him in order to appease the
Turks. They tried to control the Cossacks by recruiting some of them into the
Polish military system as, so called, Registered Cossacks, but they could never
really tame them.
With decreasing danger from the Tatars, Polish nobles and Ukrainian
princes loyal to the king, were granted possessions in territory controlled by the
Cossacks and began to introduce their freedom limiting, unpopular laws.
Dissatisfied with such treatment Cossacks, under Kryshtof Kosynskyi, rebelled
about 1590, and by year 1593 controlled most of eastern Ukraine. After
Kosynskyi, Hryhoriy Loboda became Cossack Hetman in 1593.
Another section of Cossacks, numbering about 12000, under Semeryn
Nalyvayko, were recruited by the Pope and the German Kaiser for war against
theTurks. They conquered Moldova and in 1595 returned to Ukraine to fight
against Polish rulers and to defend the Orthodox population from the Jesuits,
who were instigating amalgamation with the Catholic Church. In 1596 at a
synod of Brest, the Kyivan metropolitan and the majority of bishops signed an
act of union with Rome. The Uniate church thus formed recognized supremacy
of the pope but retained the Eastern rites and the Slavonic liturgical language.
Also in year 1596 Polish king, Sigismund III Vasa, ordered Field Marshal
Stanislav Zholkewski to subjugate the Cossack forces. After several months of
fighting, Zholkewski surrounded Cossacks, led by Nalyvayko, Loboda and
Shaula, at river Solonytsya near Lubny. There were about 6000 Cossack
fighters and just as many women and children facing a much more superior
force. The prolonged siege, lack of food and fodder, internal squabbles (Loboda
was killed in one the fights between sections of Cossacks) and intensive cannon
16
fire destroyed defenders' capacity to resist. In order to save their families,
Cossacks agreed to Zholkewski's terms to let them go free in exchange for
handing over their leaders. However, after surrender, the Poles did not keep
their word; they attacked and started to massacre defenseless and disoriented
Cossacks. Only a section under leadership of Krempskyi broke through and
joined with troops of Pidvysotskyi, who were coming to the rescue of the
besieged Cossacks.
Zholkewski, exhausted by prolonged fighting, decided to abandon the
idea to conquer the Cossacks. He returned to Poland, where he tortured and
executed the captured Cossack leaders. The most severe punishment was
handed to Nalyvayko, who was tortured for about a year prior to a brutal
execution.
History » Lithuanian and Polish rule » Social changes
Over three centuries of Lithuanian and Polish rule, Ukraine by the middle
of the 17th century had undergone substantial social evolution. The princely
and boyar families tracing their roots to Kyivan Rus’ had largely merged and
become part of the privileged noble estate of Lithuania and Poland. Long
attached to the Orthodox religion and the Ruthenian language and customs, the
Ruthenian nobility in the late 16th century became increasingly prone
to Polonization, a process often initiated by education in Jesuit schools and
conversion to Roman Catholicism.
With the growth of towns and urban trades, especially in western
Ukraine, the burghers became an important social stratum. They were divided
both in terms of an internal social hierarchy associated with the guild system
and by religion and ethnicity. Since the 13th century many Poles, Armenians,
Germans, and Jews had settled in the cities and towns, where the Ukrainians
17
were often reduced to a minority. Although the burghers came to play an
influential role within the Ukrainian community, legal disabilities imposed on
non-Catholics progressively limited their participation in the municipal selfgovernment enjoyed by many cities and towns under Magdeburg Law.
In the period of Polish rule the conditions of the peasantry steadily
deteriorated. The free peasantry that had still existed into the late Lithuanian
period underwent rapidenserfment, while serf obligations themselves became
more onerous (see serfdom). Peasant unrest increased toward the end of the
16th century, especially in eastern Ukraine. The sparsely settled lands were
opened to Polish proprietorship for the first time, and large latifundia
(agricultural estates worked by a large number of peasants) were established
through royal grants to meet the demands for grain on the European markets.
To attract labour to the new estates, peasants were granted temporary
exemptions from serf obligations; the expiration of these exemptions and the
reintroduction of servitude among a population grown accustomed to freedom
led to much discontent and peasant flight into the “wild fields”—the steppe
lands to the east and south. Tensions were exacerbated by the fact that, while
the peasants were Ukrainian and Orthodox, the landlords were largely Polish
(or Polonized) and Roman Catholic, and the estate stewards or leaseholders for
absentee proprietors frequently were Jewish. Thus, social discontent tended to
coalesce with national and religious grievances.
History » Lithuanian and Polish rule » Religious developments
As social conditions among the Ukrainian population in Lithuania and
Poland progressively deteriorated, so did the situation of the Ruthenian church.
The Roman Catholic Church, steadily expanding eastward into Ukraine,
enjoyed the support of the state and legal superiority over the Orthodox.
External pressures and restrictions were accompanied by a serious internal
decline in the Ruthenian church. From the mid-16th century, both Catholicism,
newly reinvIhorated by the Counter-Reformation and the arrival of Jesuits in
Poland, and Protestantism (albeit temporarily) made inroads, especially among
the Ruthenian nobility.
Attempts to revive the fortunes of the Ruthenian church gathered strength
in the last decades of the 16th century. About 1580 Prince Konstantyn Ostrozky
founded at Ostroh in Volhynia a cultural centre that included an academy and a
printing press and attracted leading scholars of the day; among its major
achievements was the publication of the first complete text of the Bible in
Slavonic. Lay brotherhoods, established by burghers in Lviv and other cities,
maintained churches, supported schools and printing presses, and promoted
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charitable activities. The brotherhoods were frequently in conflict with the
Orthodox hierarchy, however, on questions of authority over their institutions
and clerical reforms.
Religious developments took a radical turn in 1596 when, at a synod
in Brest, the Kyivan metropolitan and the majority of bishops signed an act of
union with Rome. By this act the Ruthenian church recognized papal primacy
but retained the Eastern rite and the Slavonic liturgical language, as well as its
administrative autonomy and traditional discipline, including a married clergy.
This so-called Uniate church was unsuccessful in gaining the legal
equality with the Latin church foreseen by the agreement. Nor was it able to
stem the process of Polonization and Latinization of the nobility. At the same
time, the Union of Brest-Litovsk caused a deep split in the Ruthenian church
and society. This was reflected in a sizable polemical literature, struggles over
the control of bishoprics and church properties that intensified after the
restoration of an Orthodox hierarchy in 1620, and numerous acts of violence.
Efforts to heal the breach in the 1620s and ’30s were ultimately fruitless.
(Eastern Rite church.)
4. The Cossacks
The origins of the first Cossacks are uncertain. The traditional
historiography dates the emergence of Cossacks to the 14-15th centuries. Some
historians suggest that the Cossack people were of mixed ethnic origins,
descending from Turks, Tatars, Russians, Ukrainians and others who settled or
passed through the vast Steppe that stretches from Asia to southern Europe. It is
after 1400 that the Cossacks emerge as an established and identifiable group in
historical accounts. Rulers of Grand Duchy of Moscow and thePolishLithuanian Commonwealth employed Cossacks as mobile guards against Tatar
raids from the south in the territories of the present-day southwestern Russia
and southern Ukraine. Those early Cossacks seemed to have included a
significant number of Tatar descendants judging from the records of their
names. From the mid-15th century, the Cossacks are mostly mentioned with
Russian and Ukrainian names.
In all historical records of that period, Cossack society was described as a
loose federation of independent communities, often merging into larger units of
a military character, entirely separate from, and mostly independent of, other
nations (such as Poland, Russia or the Tatars).
In the 16th century, these Cossack societies created two relatively
independent territorial organisations:
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

Zaporizhia, on the lower bends of the river Dnieper in Ukraine, between
Russia, Poland and the Tatars of the Crimea, with the center, Zaporizhian
Sich;
The Don Cossack State, on the river Don, separating the then weak
Russian State from the Mongol and Tatar tribes, vassals of Ottoman
Empire
In Ukraine appeared autonomous Cossack state, which itself elected her
leaders – hetmen, in other words commanders in chief, who at the same time
executed civil power, and had own constitution.
Hetman was the title used by commanders of the Ruthenian
(Ukrainian) Dnieper Cossacks from the end of the sixteenth century. The
title hetman was adopted from thePolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Cossack
hetmans had very broad powers and acted as supreme military commanders and
executive leader (by issuing administrative decrees).However, the Hetmanate
did not have a constitution, which allowed for powers and authority to change
over time, which was needed due to internal conflicts and the pressure of the
Russian government.
20
Colonel of Zaporozhian Cossack.
The Cossacks were united by Zaporizka Sych, which was the social and
political and military and administrative organization of the Ukrainian
Cossacks, founded in the first part of XVI century beyond the Dnieper banks in
the area of Khortitsa island.
View
of
the Dnieper
Hydroelectric Station from Khortytsia.
Zaporizhka Sych had a great influence on development of Ukraine and the
history course at all.
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Using small, shallow-draft, and highly manoeuvrable galleys known
as chaiky, they moved swiftly across the Black Sea. According to the Cossacks'
own records, these vessels, carrying a 50 to 70 man crew, could reach the
Anatolian coast of Asia Minor from the mouth of the Dnieper River in forty
hours. The chaiky were often accompanied by larger galleys, that served as
command and control centres. The raids also acquired a distinct political
purpose after Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny became hetman in 1613,
intending to turn the host into the nucleus of a Ukrainian nation with the
support of the European states.
chaika
By 1618 the Zaporozhians were members of the Anti-Turkish League, as
Schaidachny transferred his seat of power to Kiev, the Polish Crown's regional
capital.
After 1624 the Zaporozhian raids gradually died out, as the Cossacks
began to devote more and more of their martial energies to land-based
campaigns. After the civil war of 1648 (or Rebellion from the Polish viewpoint)
the Zaporozhian Host gained control of parts of the Ukraine in 1649, although
they at various time acknowledged the Polish King over the following decades.
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There were several Cossack uprisings against the Commonwealth in the
early
17th century. The largest of them was the Khmelnytsky Uprising, which is
considered to be one of the events which brought an end to the Golden Age of
the Commonwealth. This uprising distanced Cossacks from the Commonwealth
sphere of influence.
The importance of Zaporozhian Cossacks in
shaping the Ukrainian identity means that the Greater Coat of arms of
Ukraine features a Zaporozhian Cossack figure on the right of the
national emblem
5. National liberation movement under the leadership of Bohdan
Khmelnytskiy. Narrowing of the autonomy and liquidation of
Zaporizhian Sich.
The term Khmelnytsky Uprising refers to a rebellion or war of
liberation in the lands of present-day Ukraine which continued from 1648–1657
or 1654. Under the command of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky,
the Zaporozhian Cossacks allied with the Crimean Tatars, and the
local Ukrainian peasantry, fought several battles against the armies
andparamilitary forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Uprising
started as the rebellion of the Cossack estate, but as other Orthodox
Christian classes (peasants, burghers, petty nobility) of the Ukrainian
palatinates joined them, the ultimate aim became a creation of an
autonomous Ukrainian state. The Uprising succeeded in ending the Polish
influence over those Cossack lands that were taken under Russian protectorate.
These events, along with internal conflicts and hostilities with Sweden and
Russia, resulted in severely diminished Polish power during this period.
Bohdan Khmelnytsky was a noble-born product of a Jesuit education
in Ukraine. At the age of 22, he joined his father in the service of the
Commonwealth. Bohdan was taken captive by the Turks and held for two years
until his mother collected enough ransom money. During these two years he
mastered the Turkish and Tatar languages. This proved to be helpful to him
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later in his relations with Turkey and Tatary. Bohdan returned to Subotiv to
follow in his father's footsteps by becoming a Cossack (an idealistic, freedomloving, gallant and independent man who fights for the well being of Ukraine
and is ready to sacrifice his life for his country, his religion, and his freedom),
married Hanna Somko and lived together on his estate in Subotiv. After the
signing of the Treaty of Borovytsia on December 24, 1637, Bohdan was elected
Captain of the registered Cossacks in Chihiryn. He was part of a Cossack
delegation to the Polish king, Wladyslaw IV in 1646. At this point in his career,
he was 50 years old. In 1646, while away from his estate, a Polish nobleman,
with the aid of local magnates (a very important and influential person in any
field of activity, especially in a large business), laid claim to Khmelnytsky's
estate, raided it, killed his yougest son, and kidnapped the woman that the
recently widowed Bohdan intended to marry. This action gave him enough
motivation to form a revolt againt the Poles. His life changed, and with it the
course of Ukraine's history. Khmelnytsky organized supporters and plotted an
uprising against the Polish landlords. Realizing that their cavalry was small, he
seeked the aid of the Crimean Tatars, the Cossack's traditional enemies. The
timing was right, and an alliance against the Poles was formed.
A five Ukrainian
hryvnia banknote depicting Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky.
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Bohdan Khmelnytsky
Having received no support from the Polish officials, Khmelnytsky
turned to his Cossack friends and subordinates. The case of a Cossack being
unfairly treated by the Poles found a lot of support not only in his regiment, but
also throughout the Sich. All through the autumn of 1647 Khmelnytsky traveled
from one regiment to the other and had numerous consultations with different
Cossack leaders throughout Ukraine. His activity raised suspicions of the Polish
authorities already used to Cossack revolts and he was promptly
arrested. Polkovnyk (colonel) Mykhailo Krychevsky assisted Khmelnytsky with
his escape, and with a group of supporters, he headed for the Zaporozhian Sich.
However, combining Cossack infantry with Crimean Tatar cavalry could
have provided a balanced military force and give Cossacks a chance to beat the
Polish army.
Khmelnytsky managed to overcome more than a century of mutual
hostility between Cossacks and Tatars.
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PolishLithuanian Commonwealth in 1648
On January 25, 1648, Khmelnytsky brought a contingent of 300-500
Cossacks to the Zaporizhian Sich. Once at the Sich, his oratory and diplomatic
skills quickly struck a nerve with oppressed Ruthenians. As his men repelled an
attempt by Commonwealth forces to retake the Sich more recruits joined his
cause. The Cossack Rada elected himHetman by the end of the month.
Khmelnytsky threw most of his resources into recruiting more fighters.
By April 1648, word of an uprising had spread through the
Commonwealth. Either because they underestimated the size of the uprising, or
because they wanted to act quickly to prevent it from spreading, the
Commonwealth sent 3,000 soldiers towards Khmelnytsky, without waiting to
gather additional forces. Khmelnytsky quickly marshalled his forces to meet his
enemy en route at the Battle of Zhovti Vody.
Khmelnytsky stopped his forces at Bila Tserkva, and issued a list of
demands to the Polish Crown, including raising the number of Registered
Cossacks, returning Churches taken from the Orthodox faithful, and paying the
Cossacks for wages which had been withheld for 5 years.
Following the battle at Zbarazh and Zboriv, Khmelnytsky gained
numerous privileges for the Cossacks under the Treaty of Zboriv. When
hostilities resumed, however, Khmelnytsky's forces were abandoned by their
former allies the Crimean Tatars, suffered a massive defeat in 1651 at the Battle
of Berestechko, and were forced at Bila Tserkva(Biała Cerkiew) to accept a
loser's treaty. A year later, the Cossacks had their revenge at the Battle of
Batoh.
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Within a few months, almost all Polish nobles, officials, and priests had
been wiped out or driven from the lands of present-day Ukraine. The
Commonwealth population losses in the Uprising were over one million. The
Uprising began a period in Polish history known as The Deluge (which
included a Swedish invasion of the Commonwealth), that temporarily freed the
Ukrainians from Polish domination but in short time subjected it to Russian
domination.
Diminished scope
of Polish-Lithuanian control
Weakened by wars, in 1654 Khmelnytsky persuaded the Cossacks to ally
with the Russian tsar in the Treaty of Pereyaslav. On the January 18th in 1654,
Khmelnytsky called a meeting with the Cossack elite and a decision was made.
Ukraine needed an overlord and it was decided upon to be ruled by the
Muscovite tsar. This meeting was held at Pereiaslav, near Keiv. The towns
people were gathered and the Hetman spoke of a need for an overlord. He
presented four candidates - the Polish king, the Tatar Khan, the Ottoman Sultan,
and the Muscovite tsar. It was explained to the townspeople that this was
decided upon at the prior meeting and that the Muscovite tsar was the best
choice. The crowd understood and agreed. At the town church, the Pereiaslav
Agreement was sealed and marked a turning point in the history of Ukraine,
Russia, and all of Eastern Europe. Muscovy now had its foot in the door to
becoming a great power. Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky gave pride back to its
people, and succeded in building the basis for a Ukrainian way of life. Without
his efforts, the rebirth of the Ukrainian state would have been impossible.
27
The Treaty of Pereyaslav was established in 1654 in the Ukrainian city of
Pereyaslav. The alliance was concluded between the Hetman State, who were
know as the Cossacks, and the Moscow Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich during
the Cossack Era . The Treaty of Pereyaslav gave the Ukrainian Cossack state
the protection of the tsar. The Treaty was established because the Crimean
Tartar army betray the Cossacks and the Cossack hetman had realized he had to
turn to Moscow for help.
By signing the Treaty Ukraine did come under the protection of Moscow,
so that any military offensive launched by Poland would result in an immediate
offensive by Moscow. Although, because of this high commitment to the
Ukrainian Cossack state Moscow demanded taxes to be collected from the
Ukrainian people. Also, only the Hetman and Zaporozhian Host were seen as
representatives of the Hetman State (Ohlobyn).
While Ukraine viewed the Treaty as ‘a temporary alliance’ Moscow used
the Treaty as a ‘backdoor’ to future Ukrainian internal affairs.
With the Commonwealth becoming increasingly weak, the Cossacks
became more and more integrated into the Russian Empire, with their autonomy
and privileges eroded. The remnants of these privileges were gradually
abolished. Cossacks gradually lost their independence, and were abolished
by Catherine II by the late 18th century(1775). The Cossacks that wanted to
continue their lifestyle moved to Ottoman-controlled territies on the Danube or
to the Kuban, where they live to this date.
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6. Ukraine under the direct imperial Russian rule.
During almost 150 years since the close of XVIII and to the beginning of
XX centuries Ukrainians were under the power of two empires: 80 percent of
them were subject to the Russian emperor; the rest settled the empire of
Gabsburgs. At the dawn of the modern era, Ukrainians found themselves in
political systems that were radically different from those to which they had
been accustomed. Like all empires those of the Russian Romanovs and the
Austrian Habsburgs were vast territorial conglomerates containing huge
populations of ethnically and culturally diverse peoples. Political power was
highly centralized and vested in the person of the emperor who saw no need to
take into account the views or desires of his subjects.
The Russian empire was one of the biggest in the world. Beside the big
measures it noticeably differed from other European countries by its political
system.
In any country of the continent leaders did not have such unlimited
power, which used tsars-emperors. Nowhere bureaucracy was so despotic,
police so cruel, and people so disfranchised as in Russia. Since XVIII century
tsars had absolute power over all nationals in all areas of their life.
The Russian
Empire in 1866
As for the language and culture the Ukrainians were closely kindred to
Russians, the government soon began to consider Ukraine as Russian side.
Concrete and everywhere feature of imperial presence in Ukraine was the
army. Its numerous detachments and forts studded the whole country, and its
commanders imposed people with burdensome duties, the most terrible of
which was draft, applied in Ukraine in 1797. The Term of service accounted 25
years. Because of inhuman regimentation and often wars such term was
considered equal to death sentence.
Incapacity of Russian government to provide their officials by sufficient
fee gave birth to corruption at which it silently closed the eyes; especially it
29
concerned the corruption of local scale. But if Russians used to get burden of
bureaucracy system, for Ukrainians in XIX century that phenomenon was new
and strange. Maybe it explains the fact that Ukrainian Mykola Gogol in his
famous play “Revisor” (1836) created so bright satire on imperial bureaucracy.
Ukrainian lands in the Russian Empire formally lost all traces of
their national distinctiveness. The territories were reorganized into regular
Russian provinces administered by governors appointed from St. Petersburg.
Equally important developments occurred in the social sphere. As
compensation for their lost rights as a ruling elite in the Hetmanate, the
Cossack starshyna were equalized with the Russian nobility; many entered
imperial service, and some achieved the highest government ranks. Through
education, intermarriage, and government service, the Ukrainian nobility
gradually became Russified—as the earlier Ruthenian nobility had been
Polonized—though many retained a sentimental attachment to the land and its
folklore. The Polish nobility in the Right Bank retained its status and continued
as the dominant landowning class. The large Jewish population was bound by
numerous legal disabilities and, from 1881, victimized by recurrent waves
of pogroms. The gradual process of enserfment of the peasantry in the Left
Bank culminated in 1783 under Catherine II. The obligations there, however,
were less onerous than in the Right Bank. Serfdom remained the dominant lot
of the peasantry until the emancipation of 1861, and even after emancipation
the peasants were still burdened by inadequate land allotments and heavy
redemption payments that led to the impoverishment of many. Nevertheless, the
reforms stimulated the development of industry by releasing labour from the
land. Industrial development was especially marked in eastern Ukraine, notably
the Donbas, which attracted workers from other parts of the empire. As a result,
the emerging working class and the growing urban centres became highly
Russified islands in a Ukrainian rural sea.
In the 19th century the development of Ukrainian cultural life was closely
connected with academic circles. The first modern university in Ukraine was
established in 1805 atKharkiv, and for 30 years Sloboda Ukraine was the major
centre for Ukrainian scholarship and publishing activities. In 1834 a university
was founded in Kiev, and in 1864 atOdessa. Though Russian institutions, they
did much to promote the study of local history and ethnography that had a
stimulative effect on the Ukrainian national movement.
Literature, however, became the primary vehicle for the 19th-century
Ukrainian national revival. The most important writer—and unquestionably the
most significant figure in the development of a modern Ukrainian national
30
consciousness—was Taras Shevchenko. Born a serf, Shevchenko was bought
out of servitude by a group of artists who recognized his talent for painting.
Shevchenko's poetry reflected a conception of Ukraine as a free and democratic
society that had a profound influence on the development of Ukrainian political
thought.
By the mid-19th century the cultural and literary stirrings
in Ukraine aroused concern in tsarist ruling circles. Shevchenko's patriotic verse
earned him arrest and years of exile in Central Asia.
Taras Shevchenko
The revolution that shook the Russian Empire in 1905 spawned worker
strikes and peasant unrest in Ukraine as well. The consequent transformation of
the tsarist autocracy into a semiconstitutional monarchy led to some easing in
Ukrainian national life.
In the political arena the introduction of an elected assembly,
or Duma, in 1906 initially provided Ukrainians with a new forum to press their
national concerns.
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Administrative
divisions of Russian Empire superimposed on map of Ukraine
8.Western Ukraine under the Habsburg monarchy.
Austria in XVIII-XIX centuries constituted from mixture of two big
nations, Hungarians and Ukrainians, and the several smaller ethnic groups,
which settled the main part of Eastern Europe and in 1800 accounted
approximately one seventh of the continent’s population. As no one nation or
nationality had absolute majority, no one national culture was determining to
such extent as Russian culture in the tsar empire. Though in the army and
among officials prevailed Dutch language, which was spoken the most
influential nation of the empire, striking feature of this empire remained its
ethnic variety.
The Austrian
Empire
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Prevailed majority of Ukrainians in Austrian empire inhabited in
Halychyna – south-eastern part of former Rych of Pospolite, captured by
Habsburgs after the first division of Poland in 1772. Two years later Bukovyna
– small Ukrainian land, took away by Vienna from falling into decay Ottoman
empire – was jointed to Halychyna. Finally in 1795 after the third and the last
division of Poland to the empire also were included lands, settled by Poles
(including Krakiv). If eastern Halychyna was settled mainly by Ukrainians, than
western Halychyna was mainly Polish. Joining in one administrative province
of these two nations became in the future the reason for strained relations
between them.
Under the Habsburg’s middling control was another settled by Ukrainians
region. Situated on the western hills of Carpathian Mountains, Zacarpatya from
the Middle Ages was included to the part of Hungarian kingdom. In XIX it
remained in the Hungarian part of the Habsburg’s empire and was isolated from
other Ukrainian lands.
The Habsburgs' annexation of Halychyna from Poland in 1772 was
followed two years later by their acquisition of Bukovina, a partly Ukrainian
and partly Romanian territory, from Moldavia. Already under Habsburg rule, as
part of the Hungarian crown, was a third ethnically Ukrainian region—
Transcarpathia. Within the Habsburg realm these three territories underwent
many experiences in common, but they were distinguished also by differences
stemming from their specific ethnic environments and earlier histories.
Western Ukraine under the Habsburg monarchy > Halychyna
Under Austria, ethnically Ukrainian Halychyna was joined
administratively with purely Polish areas to its west into a single province,
with Lviv (German: Lemberg) as the provincial capital. Although, on balance,
Habsburg policies favoured the Poles, Ukrainians (Ruthenians in the
contemporary terminology) in Austria enjoyed far greater opportunities for their
national development and made far greater progress than did Ukrainians in
tsarist Russia.
The reforms initiated by Maria Theresa and Joseph II and the
introduction of the imperial bureaucracy in Halychyna improved the position of
Ukrainians. Municipal reforms reversed the decline of cities and led to an
improvement in the legal and social position of the Ukrainian urban population.
Undertaken as early as 1775, educational reforms allowed for instruction in the
native language, although in practice, until the mid-19th century, Ukrainianlanguage teaching was limited largely to low-level parochial schools.
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In the course of the 19th century, the Greek Catholic church became a
major national, as well as religious, institution.
The revolution of 1848 that swept the Austrian Empire politicized the
Ukrainians of Halychyna. Although suppressed, the revolution set in motion
important transformations in Halychynan society. The corvée was abolished in
1848. Impoverishment of the Ukrainian peasantry increased, however, owing to
lack of land reform, rural overpopulation, and a near total absence of industry to
absorb the excess labour. Large-scale emigration to the Americas began in the
1880s and continued until World War I.
Disappointment with the Habsburgs and concern over the new Polish
ascendancy gave rise in the 1860s to pro-Russian sympathies among the older,
more conservative, clerical intelligentsia. The Russophiles promoted a hybrid
Ukrainian-Russian language and a cultural and political orientation
toward Russia.
By the outbreak of World War I, Ukrainians in Austrian
Halychyna were still an overwhelmingly agrarian and politically disadvantaged
society. Nevertheless, they had made impressive educational and cultural
advances, possessed a large native intelligentsia and an extensive institutional
infrastructure, and achieved a high level of national consciousness, all of which
contrasted sharply with the situation prevailing in Russian-ruled Ukraine.
34
Percentage of people with Ukrainian as their native language according to 2001
census (in regions).
Ukraine
produces the fourth largest number of post-secondary graduates in Europe,
while being ranked seventh in population.
35
Ethnic Ukrainians in Ukraine (2001)
36
Ukrainian administrative divisions by monthly salary
About number and composition population of UKRAINE
by data All-Ukrainian population census'2001 data
37
The peculiarity of the national structure of the population of Ukraine is its
multinational composition. According to All-Ukrainian population census data,
the representatives of more than 130 nationalities and ethnic groups live on the
territory of the country.
The data about the most numerous nationalities of Ukraine are mentioned
below:
Total
as % to the result
2001
(thousand
as % to 1989
2001
1989
persons)
Ukrainians
37541.7
77.8
72.7
100.3
8334.1
17.3
22.1
73.4
Belarussians
275.8
0.6
0.9
62.7
Moldavians
258.6
0.5
0.6
79.7
Russians
Crimean Tatars
248.2
0.5
0.0
in 5.3 times
more
Bulgarians
204.6
0.4
0.5
87.5
Hungarians
156.6
0.3
0.4
96.0
Romanians
151.0
0.3
0.3
112.0
Poles
144.1
0.3
0.4
65.8
Jews
103.6
0.2
0.9
21.3
Armenians
99.9
0.2
0.1
in 1.8 times
more
Greeks
91.5
0.2
0.2
92.9
Tatars
73.3
0.2
0.2
84.4
Gipsies
47.6
0.1
0.1
99.3
Azerbaijanians
45.2
0.1
0.0
122.2
Georgians
34.2
0.1
0.0
145.3
Germans
33.3
0.1
0.1
88.0
Gagausians
31.9
0.1
0.1
99.9
Other
177.1
0.4
0.4
83.9
The part of Ukrainians in the national structure of population of region is the
largest. it accounts for 3.754.700 people. or 77.8% of the population. During the
years that have passed since the census of the population ‘1989. the number of
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Ukrainians has increased by 0.3% and their part among other citizens of
Ukraine has increased by 5.1 percentage points.
Russians are the second numerous nation of Ukraine. Since 1989 their
number has decreased by 26.6% and at the date of the census it accounted for
8.334.100 people. The part of Russians in total population has decreased by 4.8
percentage points and accounted for 17.3%.
Year/Century Event
Ukrainian History: Chronological Table
More info
39
839
840
853
877
890
907-911
945
957
960-972
980
988
1015
1019
1027
1054
Mention of Rus' in the Bertynsky
MAP: Eastern
chronicles associated with the mission to
Europe, 250Ludwig I of the Frankish kingdom.
800
Magyars and khazars attacking Kyiv.
Askold becomes Kyiv's Prince.
Novgorod's Prince Oleh annexes Kyiv,
kills Askold and brings the capital of Rus'
from Novgorod to Kyiv.
Pechenegs advancing to Black Sea
steppe. Ugrians (Hungarians) move to
Danube.
Prince Oleh travels to Byzantine's capital
Constantinopol (Ukrainian "Czarhorod")
with a big army and demands an annuity
to Kyiv.
Prince Ihor signs a treaty with Byzantine
Empire - ready to accept Orthodox
Christianity.
Princess Olha (Ihor's wife) becomes a
ruler of Kyiv.
Svyatoslav (Olha's son) becomes a Prince
of Kyiv. He confrontates with Khazars,
then attacks Bulgaria and fights with
Byzantine Empire. At the time Svjatoslav
is in the offensive on Bulgaria, Khazars
attack Kyiv. He returns but gets killed in a
skirmish with Pechenegs.
Volodymyr The Great becomes a Prince.
Official Christianization of Kyiv Rus'.
Volodymyr accepts Orthodoxy and marries
Byzantine Princess Anna.
Death of Volodymyr The Great. Sons are
struggling to rule the country until 1019.
MAP:
Yaroslav The Wise - one of Volodymyr's
Kyivan Rus is
sons becomes a Prince.
11th century
Construction of Svyata Sofia (St. Sophia)
Cathedral.
Death of Prince Yaroslav.
40
Polovtsi army attack Kyiv state for the first
time.
1098 - 1099 Magyars attack Halychyna.
1111
Kyiv Princes conquer Polovtsi.
Volodymyr Monomakh - the last of great
1113
princes of Kyiv.
Yaroslav Osmomysl becomes a Prince of
1152
Halychyna.
Suzdal (Russian) Prince Yuriy Dovgoruky
(founder of Moscow) attacks Kyiv and
1155 - 1157
becomes a prince for a short period of
time.
Destruction of Kyiv by Andrey
1155 - 1169
Bogoliubsky, the Vldimir-Suzdal prince
The word Ukraine (Ukrayina) first used to
1187
describe Kyiv and Halychyna lands.
Ukrainians first battle Tatars in a battle
1223
near Kalko River in treaty with Polovetz Tatars win.
Danylo Halytsky becomes a Prince of
1238
Halychyna. Next year he unites Halychyna
with Kyiv.
1068
1240
Tatars capture Kyiv.
1256
1320
Lviv is founded by King Lev.
Yuriy becomes a King of Halychyna.
Yuriy marries Lithuanian Princess,
daughter of Gedymin.
Lithuanian Prince Olgerd frees Kyivschyna
and Podillya from Tatars. They fell under
Lithuanian control.
Last Halychyna King Volodyslav dies.
1330
1360s
MAP:
Southern Rus
1250.
1378
1387 - XVIII
Poland rules Halychyna.
century
1414
Prince Fedir Koryatovych of Mukachevo.
Crimea (Krym) under Turkish (Osman)
1475 - 1774
Empire's rule.
MAP:
Ukrainian
lands 1400
41
1490
First mentioning of cossacks (kozaks).
Dmytro Vyshnyvetsky establishes a
1550
fortress of Zaporizhzhya (Zaporizhia).
Lyublinska Uniya (Lublin Union) - All
Ukrainian territory under Lithuanian rule
1569
(except Polissia and Beresteyshchyna)
transfers to Poland.
Foundation of Ostroh Academy - first
1576
University-like school in Eastern Europe.
First Kozak uprisings (Kostynsky,
1590
Mazyvako).
Union of Brest (Beresti) - beginning of
1596
religious struggles.
1608
Fall of Ostroh Academy.
Het'man Sahaydachny is a het'man (the
1610 - 1622
arch) of Zaporizka Sich.
1630
Kozak uprising against Poland.
Petro Mohyla establishes a Collegium in
1637
Kyiv.
1648
1654
1657
1663
Beginning of liberation of Ukraine from
Polish rule headed by kozak het'man
Bohdan Khmelnytsky
Bohdan Khmel'nytsky signs Pereyaslav
treaty with Muscovy
Swedish-Ukrainian coalition against
Russia.
Two het'mans in Ukraine. Het'man of the
Left bank of Dnipro - in coalition with
Russia; het'man from right bank - against
Russia.
1665 - 1676 Het'man Petro Doroshenko.
1670
1685
(More)
MAP:Ukrainian
lands after
1569
MAP:
Zaporizka Sich
MAP: Kozak
state after
1649
(more info)
(more)
MAP:
Ukrainian
lands after
1667
Establishment of Russian control under
the right-bank kozaks.
Kyiv Orthodox Church Metropolitan
(Patriarkhat) becomes a division of
42
Muscovite Metropolitan.
Het'man Ivan Mazepa - period of
1687 - 1709
palingenecy of Kozak state.
Treaty had been signed between Ukraine
1708
and Sweden.
Battle in Poltava (Ukraine). Russians
defeat Swedish-Ukrainian army and
1709
execute Kozak troops after the surrender
of Swede army
1709
Death of Ivan Mazepa.
1710
Pylyp Orlyk becomes a het'man.
Russians prohibit the use of Ukrainian
1720
language - still preferred by Ukrainians.
First het'man of Ukraine appointed by
1722 - 1727
Russian Czar.
Het'man Danylo Apostol's uprising on the
1734
Right Bank (Haydamaky).
Construction of St. George Cathedral in
1744
Lviv.
1745
1764
1765
1772
1775
1775
1787
Oleksa Dovbush - legendary Ukrainian
hero.
MAP:
Ukrainian
lands around
1750
Abolition of Zaporizhzhya Het'manate
(Zapiriz'ka Sich).
Slobodzhanschyna falls under Russian
control.
Russian, German and Austrian empires
divide parts of Poland among
themselves.(First division) Halychyna falls
under Austrian control.
Second division of Poland. Austria
annexes Bukovyna
Zaporizka Sich destroyed by Russians.
Russians rebuild a village of Kodak into a
city and name it after queen Ekaterina II
(Katerynoslav). During Ukrainian Republic
of 1917 - 1920 the city was renamed into
Sicheslav ("In Honour of Sich"). In 1924
43
1789
1780
1794
1793
1798
communists gave it a present name Dnipropetrovsk (Combination of words
"Dnipro" (main Ukrainian river) and
"Petrovskij" (The last name of major of
city, a Stalinist)).
Establishment of Mykolayiv (Nikolayev)
End of Het'manate.
Establishment of Odesa (Odessa).
Transfer of lands on the Right Bank to
Russia from Poland excluding Halychyna,
Bukovyna, Volyn and a part of Polissya,
already annexed by Austria.
Ivan Kotlyarevsky publishes "Eneyida".
1831
Repnev attempts to renew kozak army.
1834
Establishment of The University of Kyiv.
Taras Shevchenko's first publication of
"Kobzar", probably the most popular book
in Ukrainian.
First railroad on Ukrainian territory
(Peremyshl - Lviv).
Abolition of slavery in Russia.
Ukrainian language is officially prohibited
to use by Russian government.
First Ukrainian Political Party (Halytska)
Annulment of restrictions on the usage of
Ukrainian language in Russian empire.
Revolution in Russia. Ukrainian writer and
historian Mykhaylo Hrushevsky becomes
the president of newly proclaimed
Ukrainian state (Ukrayinska Narodna
Respublika). The power of the new
government is very weak, Russian
czarists, communists and Germans try to
conquer Ukraine again. Symon Petlyura
becomes a commanders of Ukrainian
armed forces. President signs a treaty with
Germans, but it was annulled in 1919 in
1840
1861
1861
1863
1890
1905
1917
MAP:
Dnipro Ukraine
around 1850
MAP:
Ukrainian
lands 19141919
44
1918
1921
1929
1933-1934
1939-1940
1941-1944
1943-1944
1945-1947
1945-1955
1950's
1986
Brest, Belorussia, where Germany signed
a treaty with Communist Russia. Ukrainian
lands are united after Western Ukrainian
Republic and Ukrainian republic unite.
Austrian empire breaks up. Newly
MAP:
established West-Ukrainian Republic is
Western
annexed by Czechoslovakia and
Ukraine 1772Romania.
1914
Formation of Soviet Socialist Republic of
Ukraine.
Collectivization starts. All lands that
belonged to Ukrainian farmers are taken
MAP:
away and put into a large "kolhosps" (coUkraine in
operative farms.) People, who didn't want interwar years
to give their land away are arrested and
(more)
murdered.
Artificial Famine in Ukraine, caused by
Stalin's policy. At least three million people
(more)
die in result.
Annexation of Western Ukraine by Soviet
Union according to a secret treaty with
Nazi Germany.
MAP:
Ukraine during
German occupation of Ukraine. Ukrainian
WW2
Insurgent Army (UPA). SS Division
(more on
"Galizien".
division
"Galizien")
(more on UPA)
Russians return. Massive immigration to
(Ukrainians in
the west (England, France, Canada,
Saskatchewan,
USA.)
Canada)
Discrimination and murders of Ukrainian
population in Poland by Polish army and
police.
Continued fight for liberation of Ukraine in
the western regions.
Illegal anti-communist literature begins to
appear.
Nuclear reactor explosion in Chernobyl,
(picture)
45
1994
Ukraine.
National movement for the liberation of
Ukraine "Rukh" is formed.
Human chain protests for Ukrainian
independence.
Ukrainian sovereignty is proclaimed.
Ukrainian independence is proclaimed.
Elections of Parliament (Verkhovna Rada)
and the President Leonid Kravchuk.
Ukraine signs an treaty with NATO
1996
Constitution is proclaimed.
1980's
1990
1990
1991
(more)
(the text of
constitution)
References:
1. Декларація про державний суверенітет України. Прийнята Верховною Радою
Української РСР 16 липня 1990 року. - К. 1991.
2. Акт проголошення незалежності України, прийнятий Верховною Радою
України 24 серпня 1991 року. - К. 1991.
3. Конституція України. Прийнята на п'ятій сесії Верховної Ради України 28
червня 1996 року. - К. 1996.
4. Крип'якевич І. П. Історія України. - Львів, 1990.
5. Полонська-Василенко Н. Історія України. Т. 1-2.-К. 1992.
6. Andrew Wilson. The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation. Yale University
Press;
2nd edition (2002).
7. Anna Reid. Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine. London,
Orion Books; 4th impression (1998, preface 2003).
8. Mykhailo HRus’hevsky. History of Ukraine-Rus’ in 9 volumes.
9. Orest Subtelny. Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press
(1988).
10. Paul Robert Magocsi. A History of Ukraine. Toronto: University of Toronto
Press (1996).
Liberation efforts of 1914-1921. Revival of the Ukrainian
state. Ukraine between the two World Wars.
Plan
1. Ukrainians in the First World War.
2. Revolution in Ukraine.
3. Ukraine in the first years of USSR.
4. Industrialization of Ukraine. Collectivization.
5. The famine. Great Purge
46
1. Ukrainians in the First World War
World War I also known as the First World War was a global military
conflict which involved most of the world's great powers,[1] assembled in two
opposing alliances: the Allies of World War I centred around the Triple
Entente (initially consisted of the United Kingdom, France, and Russia) and
the Central Powers (initially consisted of theGerman Empire, the AustrianHungarian Empire), centred around the Triple Alliance.[2] More than 70 million
military personnel were mobilized in one of the largest wars in history. [3] More
than 15 million people were killed, making it one of the deadliest conflicts in
history.[4] During the conflict, the industrial and scientific capabilities of the
main combatants were entirely devoted to the war effort.
The assassination, on 28 June 1914, of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of
Austria, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, is seen as the immediate
trigger of the war, though long-term causes, such as imperialistic foreign policy,
played a major role. The archduke's assassination at the hands
of Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip resulted in demands against the Kingdom
of Serbia.[5] Several alliances that had been formed over the past decades were
invoked, so within weeks the major powers were at war; with all
havingcolonies, the conflict soon spread around the world.
By the war's end in 1918, four major imperial powers—
the German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires—had
been
militarily and politically defeated, with the last two ceasing to exist as
autonomous entities.[6] The revolutionized Soviet Union emerged from the
Russian Empire, while the map of central Europe was completely redrawn into
numerous smaller states.[7] The League of Nations was formed in the hope of
preventing another such conflict. The European nationalism spawned by the
war, the repercussions of Germany's defeat, and the Treaty of Versailles would
eventually lead to the beginning of World War II in 1939.[
Upon the outbreak of the First World War, the name Ukraine was used
only geographically, as the term did not exist nationally. The territory that made
up the modern country of Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire with a
notable southwestern region administered by Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the
border dating to the Congress of Vienna in 1815.
However as the border did not undermine the ethnic composition of
Europe, both Empires towards the latter 19th century, on the tide of rising
national awareness of the period attempted to exert their influence on the
adjacent territory. For the Russian Empire, viewed Ukrainians as Little
47
Russians and had support of the large Russophile community among the
Ukrainian population in Halychyna. Austria on the contrary supported the late19th century rise in Ukrainian Nationalism. Ultimately for both empires
Western Ukraine was but a pawn in a major standoff for the Balkans and the
Slavic Orthodox population it harboured.
Religion also played a key role in the standoff. When Russia and
Austria partitioned Poland at the end of the 18th century, they inherited
largely Eastern-rite Catholicpopulations. Russia went to great lengths to revert
the population to Orthodoxy, often peacefully, but at times forcibly (as took
place in Chelm)
The final factor was that by 1914, Ukrainian nationalism had matured to
a point where it could significantly influence the future of the region. As a
result of this nationalism and of the other main sources of Russo-Austrian
confrontations, including Polish and Romanian lands, both empires eventually
lost these disputed territories when these territories formed new, independent
states.
The Russian advance into Halychyna began in August 1914. During the
offensive, the Russian army successfully pushed the Austrians right up to
the Carpathian ridgeeffectively capturing all of the lowland territory, and
fulfiling their long aspirations of annexing the territory.
Ukrainians were split into two separate and opposing armies. 3.5 million
fought with the Imperial Russian Army, while 250,000 fought for the AustroHungarian Army. Many Ukrainians thus ended up fighting each other. Also,
many Ukrainian civilians suffered as armies shot and killed them after accusing
them of collaborating with opposing armies.
The Ukrainian Austrian internment was part of the confinement of
enemy aliens in Austria during World War I. Central Camp Talerhof (German:
Thalerhof) was a concentration camp operated by the Austro-Hungarian
imperial government between 1914 and 1917 in the Austrian province of Styria.
Central Camp Talerhof 1914-1917
Over twenty thousand Ukrainian Moscophiles were arrested and
imprisoned in the camp and in the fortress of Terezín, Bohemia. The camp
housed primarily Russophileindividuals and families from Halychyna. All were
48
suspected of collaboration with the advancing tsarist Russian Army that had
invaded Halychyna at the outset of World War I.
The first group of prisoners was transported to Talerhof by soldiers of
Austrian regiment of Graz on September, 4, 1914. Until the winter of 1915,
there were no barracks in Talerhof; prisoners slept in the open air on the
ground.
On November, 9, 1914, according to the official report of Field Marshal
Schleer, there were 5700 Ukrainians and Lemkos in Talerhof. In total, 20,000
people were prisoners from September 4, 1914 to May 10, 1917.
In the first year and a half, three thousand prisoners died. In addition, tens
of thousands of Ukrainians and Lemkos were victims of reprisals carried out by
Austro-Hungarian authorities in the Western Ukraine during World War I. In
May 1917, the camp was closed by order of Emperor Charles I (r. 1916-1918).
Modern Ukraine's borders superimposed on the 1912
administrative division of the Russian and Austrian Empires
Eastern Front on the verge of conflict in 1914
Eastern Front, September 1914.
49
The consequences of the First World War of 1914-1918 for Ukrainians,
who had to fight for both belligerent parties, were tragic. During the whole war
Halychyna appeared the arena of the biggest and bloodshed battles on the
Eastern front, its population got awful damages from destructions and
devastation, caused by the war actions, and roughness of Russian and Austrian
command.
But together with physical losses the war even greater worsened the fate of
Ukrainians, who did not have own state, which could defense their particular
interests. The great amount of Ukrainians (in Russian army it was amounted 3.5
mln of Ukrainian soldiers and 250 thousand served in Austrian forces) fought
and died for empires, which not only ignored their nation interests, but also
active tried, as in particular Russia, to eliminate their national movement. The
worst was that Ukrainians as the participants of fight from both parties were
forced to kill each other.
All Ukrainian cultural establishments, cooperative and periodic editions
were closed by order of tsar authority of Russia. There were implemented
restrictions to use Ukrainian language and made attempts to apply Russian
language at schools. Especially massive attacks had Greece Catholic Church –
the symbol of western Ukrainian originality. Hundreds of Greece catholic
priests were removed to Russia, instead there were put Orthodox priests, who
inclined peasants to Orthodoxy. Metropolitan Andrew Sheptitskiy, who refused
to save himself from the Russians by escape, was arrested and taken to the city
Suzdal. But Russians had no time to execute finally their plans, as the Austrians
launched to counter-offensive and up to the May 1915 retook the most part of
eastern Halychyna. Going back, tsar forces took in hostages several hundreds of
outstanding Ukrainian figures and evacuated thousands of people, including
many Russophiles, role of which in Ukrainian policy finished.
2. Revolution in Ukraine
3.
Map of the West Ukrainian People's
Republic
50
During World War I the western Ukrainian people were situated between
Austria-Hungary and Russia. Ukrainian villages were regularly destroyed in the
crossfire. Ukrainians could be found participating on both sides of the conflict.
In Halychyna, over twenty thousand Ukrainians who were suspected of being
sympathetic to Russian interests were arrested and placed in Austrian
concentration camps, both in Talerhof, Styria and in Terezín fortress (now in
the Czech Republic).
The brutality did not end with the end of the First World War for
Ukrainians. Fighting actually escalated with the beginning of the Russian
Revolution of 1917. The revolution began a civil war within the Russian
Empire and much of the fighting took place in the Ukrainian provinces. Many
atrocities occurred during the civil war as the Red, White, Polish, Ukrainian,
and allied armies marched throughout the country. The Jewish suffered the
most as Cossack gangs raped, looted, and massacred many Jewish communities.
Other villages experienced raping, looting, and killing but not to the same scale
as the Jewish communities.
There were two attempts during this period where the Ukrainians tried to
become their own state. One was at the city of Kiev and the other in Lviv but
neither gained enough traction to work and they both failed.
The 1919 Treaty of Versailles gave away Ukrainian land to other
European countries. In the west, Halychyna and western Volyn» were given
to Poland.
The Kingdom
of
Romania received
the Bukovina province. Czechoslovakia gained Uzhhorod and Mukachevo. The
remaining central and eastern Ukrainian provinces were given to the Soviet
Union. As a result of World War I and the Russian Civil War, Ukrainians saw
all of their land given to other countries and 1.5 million had lost their lives.
With the collapse of the Russian and Austrian empires following World
War I and the Russian Revolution of 1917, Ukrainian national movement for
self-determination emerged again. During 1917–20 several separate Ukrainian
states briefly emerged: the Central Rada, the Hetmanate, the Directorate,
the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian People's Republic.
However, with the defeat of the latter in the Polish-Ukrainian War and the
failure of the Polish Kiev Offensive (1920) of the Polish-Soviet War, thePeace
of Ryha concluded in March 1921 between Poland and Bolsheviks left Ukraine
divided again. The western part of Halychyna had been incorporated into the
newly organized Second Polish Republic, incorporating territory claimed or
controlled by the ephemeral Komancza Republic and the Lemko-Rusyn
Republic. The larger, central and eastern part, established as the Ukrainian
Soviet Socialist Republic in March 1919, later became a constituent republic of
the Soviet Union, when it was formed in December 1922.
News about the collapse of Russian tsar regime reached Kyiv on March 13
1917. For several days the representatives of the most important establishments
51
and organizations of the city founded Executive committee, which had to keep
order and act on the behalf of Temporary government of Russia. At the same
time Kyiv Rada of working and soldiers deputies became the center of radically
disposed lefts. But opposite to the events in Petrograd, in Kyiv the third active
person came out the arena: on March 17 Ukrainians foundedCentral Rada. It
was established by moderate liberals from the Association of Ukrainian
progressives under the leading of Evgen Chykalenko, Sergiy Efremov and
Dmytro Doroshenko together with social demokrates at the head of Volodymyr
Vynnychenko and Symon Petlyura. Mykhaylo Hrushevskiy – well known,
authoritative figure, who returned from deportation, was elected the president of
the Central Rada. So unlike Russians, in Kyiv the Ukrainians of all ideal
persuasion gathered in one representative body.
Ukrainian Central Rada
Mykhailo Hrushevsky
Hrushevsky on fifty hryvnia note
When defenselessness of the Temporary government became more
obvious, the Central Rada decided to use its advantages. To gain the recognition
of the highest political force in Ukraine, on June 19 1917 it issued the First
universal, which declared: “So be Ukraine free. Not separating finally
52
from Russia and not breaking connections with Russian state, let’s Ukrainian
people receive the right to dispose on their own their life on their land”.
Volodymyr Vynnychenko, who took responsibility to govern Ukraine, headed
General Secretariat, consisting mainly from social democrats.
On November 7 (October 25 according to Julian stile) 1917
in Petrograd the Bolsheviks threw off the Temporary government and took
authority in their hands. The Bolsheviks mainly concentrated in the industrial
centers of Russia and in Ukraine they had scantly influence, mostly in Donbas.
So among almost 2 million workers of Ukrainians the supporters of the
Bolshevik accounted tiny percent. Besides, as Bolshevik’s program was mainly
turned to proletariat, among which the Ukrainians were slightly represented, it
attracted them a little.
As most of Russians in Ukrainians, the Bolsheviks with enmity attituded to
the Ukrainian movement. For one of outstanding Bolshevik Christian
Rakovskiy it was problematically to define even the fact of existence of
Ukrainian nation. About the spread of such facts inside the party evidenced one
of few outstanding Ukrainian Bolshevik Mykola Skripnik: “For the most
members of our party Ukraine did nit exist as national unit”.
But the leader of the Bolshevik’s party and revolution and the head of the
government of Russia Volodymyr Lenin was too much careful politicians, to
allow such approaches to form the party’s course. He understood that the
nationalism was powerful force, which the party could user. It is why he
formulated rather tangled state that the Bolshevik should acknowledge and
accept the execution of the right of oppressed nations for the cultural
development and self-government, till the time – in that place there was very
important warning – while it did not hindered proletarian revolution. For
example, if Ukrainian nationalism led to the separation of Ukrainian workers
from Russian, and that according to Lenin constituted bourgeois nationalism,
with which it was necessary to fight. In other words, in theory national
aspiration of Ukrainians was not defined and in practice they were through
away.
After the Bolsheviks took power in Russia, the question about who would
govern Ukraine arose. As they had not enough power for defeating Central
Rada and supporters of the Temporary government in Kyiv, which gathered
around the army headquarters, the Bolsheviks decided to maintain good
relations with Ukrainians for some time, trying at the same time to be through
with army headquarters.
But Bolsheviks were stunned when the Central Rada declared, that it took
the supreme power in all nine provinces, where the Ukrainians amounted the
majority. Formally it was confirmed by its Third universal dated July 7 1917,
which declared the establishment of autonomous Ukrainian Republic. Still not
dare to break off relations with Russia, theCentral Rada declared about of its
53
aim – to create in former Russian empire federation of free and equitable
nation.
Map of the
Ukrainian People's Republic
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Vladimir Lenin addressing a crowd in 1920.
54
From northern east 12 thousand Bolshevik forces at the head of
commanders Volodymyr Antonov-Ovsientko and Myhail Muravyov moved to
Ukraine. Against them the Ukrainian military Minister Symon Petlyura had
scattered in different places 15 fighters, consisting of peasant army of “free
Cossacks”, former prisoners of war from Halychyna and several hundreds of
Kyiv gymnasia pupils, which went to front straight from the school.
Symon Petliura
To the east from the city Kruty (modern Chernigiv region) in the last great
fight with the approaching forces of Muravyov faced detachments of Petlyura.
After desperate fights the Ukrainians had to step back. 300 of gymnasium
pupils got into encirclement, they all died, their death got honorable place for
them in the Ukrainian national pantheon.
Seven incomplete years of war and social distempers led subordinated to
Bolsheviks territories of former Russian empire to the state of ruins. Only
in Ukraine battles, shootings and epidemics, connected with the First World and
civil Wars, took over 1,5 people. Shortage of food, fuels, unemployment forced
hundred thousand people to go out from city to village. Industrial production
was almost cut off.
3. Ukraine in the first years of USSR
Flag
Coat of arms
The Moscow Kremlin, the official residence of the government of the USSR.
55
Soviet Union administrative divisions, 1989
Geographic location of various
ethnic groups within the Soviet Union in 1941
The Soviet Union is traditionally considered to be the successor of
the Russian Empire and of its short-lived successor, The Provisional
Government under Georgy Yevgenyevich Lvov and then Alexander Kerensky.
The last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, ruled until March, 1917 when the Empire
was overthrown and a short-lived Russian provisional government took power,
the latter to be overthrown in November 1917 by Vladimir Lenin. From 1917 to
1922, the predecessor to the Soviet Union was the Russian Soviet Federative
Socialist Republic (RSFSR), which was an independent country, as were other
Soviet republics at the time. The Soviet Union was officially established in
December 1922 as the union of the Russian (colloquially known as Bolshevist
Russia), Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Transcaucasian Soviet republics ruled
by Bolshevik parties.
On December 28, 1922 a conference of plenipotentiary delegations from
the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and
the Belorussian SSRapproved the Treaty of Creation of the USSR and the
Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, forming the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics. These two documents were confirmed by the 1st Congress of
Soviets of the USSR and signed by heads of delegations - Mikhail Kalinin,
Mikha
Tskhakaya, Mikhail
Frunze and Grigory
Petrovsky, Aleksandr
Chervyakov respectively on December 30, 1922. On February 1, 1924, the
USSR was recognized by the British Empire. Also in 1924, a Soviet
Constitution was approved which further legitimized the December 1922 union
56
of the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Belarusian SSR, and the
Transcaucasian SFSR to form the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"
(USSR).
The intensive restructuring of the economy, industry and politics of the
country began in the early days of Soviet power in 1917. A large part of this
was performed according to Bolshevik Initial Decrees, documents of the Soviet
government, signed by Vladimir Lenin. One of the most prominent
breakthroughs was the GOELRO plan, that envisioned a major restructuring of
the Soviet economy based on total electrification of the country. The Plan was
developed in 1920 and covered a ten to 15 year period. It included construction
of a network of 30 regional power plants, including ten large hydroelectric
power plants, and numerous electric-powered large industrial enterprises.] The
Plan became the prototype for subsequent Five-Year Plans and was basically
fulfilled by 1931.
Subordinated to Moscow communist party fully controlled the Ukrainian
soviet government, though it could not dismiss or swallow it up. So till 1923
soviet government ofUkraine separately from soviet Russia maintained foreign
relations (it concluded 48 own agreements), had foreign trade and even began to
initiate the ground of separate Ukrainian army.
With the purpose to demonstrate voluntariness of union, Lenin suggested
to give each republic consisting Russia the right of free exit from it. This term
was stipulated in the constitution of 1924. Prerogatives of the government were
determined in such way: some operations remained exclusively in the area
of Ukraine’s responsibilities, others were divided between Ukrainian and
Russian (Moscow) ministers, and others were solved by union government.
Such way the Ukrainian soviet government on the territory of republic
theoretically had jurisdiction under agriculture, internal affairs, legislation,
education, health defense and social providing. External affairs, army, fleet,
transport, foreign trade, communication were referred to exclusively
competence of union government, located in Moscow.
Joining to the structure of Soviet Union, Ukrainian republic became the
second its component in size. It took territory of 450 thousand square km. and
had population over 26 mln people. The capital of the country became Kharkiv,
which as against Kyiv, was not closely connected with former national
governments.
The first facilities of Ukrainian government in the field of culture and
education had the purpose to extend the use of Ukrainian language, especially
in the party and government. Necessity of this was obvious: in 1922 on one
member of Comparty of Ukraine referred seven of those who spoke Russian,
and in the government this proportion amounted one to three. In August 1923
with the purpose to eliminate this disproportion party and government officials
57
received direction to pass specially organized courses of Ukrainian language.
To those who did not manage to pass it successfully threatened dismissal. In
1925 the officials received direction to use Ukrainian language in all
government letters and publications. In 1927 it was announced that all party
documentation should be in Ukrainian. Contrary to the absence of significant
enthusiasm in numerous nonukrainian members of the government and the
party, new policy gave striking affect. If in 1922 less than 20 % were handled in
Ukrainian, in 1927 it were 70 % of such documents.
Similar rebirth felt Ukrainian press, which was cruelty oppressed by tsar
regime and for which the first steps of soviet authority were not the best. In
1922 among all published books in Ukraine only 27% were issued in Ukrainian,
among all newspapers and documents in Ukrainian published only 10 items. Up
to 1927 more than a half of books published in Ukrainian, in 1933 from 433
newspapers of the republic 373 were issued in Ukrainian. Ukrainian.
4. Industrialization of Ukraine. Collectivization.
This period of the Soviet Union was dominated by Joseph Stalin, who
sought to reshape Soviet society with aggressive economic planning, in
particular a sweeping collectivization of agriculture and development of
industrial power. He also constructed a massive bureaucracy, which arguably is
responsible for millions of deaths as a result of various purges and
collectivization efforts. During his time as leader of the USSR, Stalin made
frequent use of his secret police, GULAGs (the government agency that
administered the penal labor camps of the Soviet Union ), and nearly unlimited
power to reshape Soviet society.
Joseph Stalin
At the 15th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in
December 1927, Stalin attacked the left by expelling Leon Trotsky and his
supporters from the party and then moving against the right by
abandoning Lenin's New Economic Policy which had been championed
58
by Nikolai Bukharin and Alexei Ivanovich Rykov. Warning delegates of an
impending capitalist encirclement, he insisted that survival and development
could only occur by pursuing the rapid development of heavy industry. Stalin
remarked that theSoviet Union was "fifty to a hundred years behind the
advanced countries" (the United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom,
etc.), and thus must narrow "this distance in ten years." In a speech
foreboding World War II, Stalin declared, "Either we do it or we shall be
crushed."
To oversee the radical transformation of the Soviet Union, the party,
under Stalin's direction, established Gosplan (the State General Planning
Commission), a state organization responsible for guiding the socialist economy
toward accelerated industrialization. In April 1929 Gosplan released two drafts
that began the process that would industrialize the primarily agrarian nation.
This 1,700 page report became the basis the First Five-Year Plan for National
Economic Construction, or Piatiletka, calling for the doubling of Soviet capital
stock between 1928 and 1933.
"Let's Turn the Five-Year-Plan into a Four-Year
One" (Gustav Klutsis, 1930)
The new economic system put forward by the first Five−Year plan
entailed a complicated series of planning arrangement. The first Five−Year plan
focused on the mobilization of natural resources to build up the country's heavy
industrial base by increasing output of coal, iron, and other vital resources.
Despite the high human cost, this process was largely successful, and caused
long−term industrial growth more rapid than any country in history.
The mobilization of resources by state planning augmented the country's
industrial base. From 1928 to 1932, pig iron output, necessary for further
development of the industrial infrastructure rose from 3.3 million to 6.2 million
tons per year. Coal, the integral product fueling modern economies and
59
Stalinist industrialization, successfully rose from 35.4 million to 64 million
tons, and output of iron ore rose from 5.7 million to 19 million tons. A number
of
industrial
complexes
such
as Magnitogorsk and Kuznetsk,
the Moscowand Gorky automobile
plants,
the Urals and
Kramatorsk
heavy machinery plants, and Kharkov, Stalingrad and Cheliabinsk tractor plants
had been built or were under construction.
In real terms, the workers' standards of living tended to drop, rather than
rise during the industrialisation. Stalin's laws to “tighten work discipline” made
the situation worse: e.g. a 1932 change to the RSFSR labor law code enabled
firing workers who had been absent without a reason from the work place for
just one day. Being fired accordingly meant losing “the right to use ration and
commodity cards” as well as the “loss of the right to use an apartment″ and
even blacklisted for new employment which altogether meant a threat
of starving. Those measures, however, were not fully enforced, as managers
often desperately needed to hire new workers. In contrast, the 1938 legislation,
which introduced labor books, followed by major revisions of the labor law,
were enforced. For example, being absent or even 20 minutes late were grounds
for becoming fired; managers who failed to enforce these laws faced criminal
prosecution. Later, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, 26 June
1940 “On the Transfer to the Eight-Hour Working Day, the Seven-day Work
Week, and on the Prohibition of Unauthorized Departure by Laborers and
Office Workers from Factories and Offices″ replaced the 1938 revisions with
obligatory criminal penalties for quitting a job (2–4 months imprisonment), for
being late 20 minutes (6 months of probation and pay confiscation of 25 per
cent) etc.
Based largely on these figures the Soviet government declared that Five
Year Industrial Production Plan had been fulfilled by 93.7 percent in only four
years, while parts devoted to heavy−industry part were fulfilled by 108%. Stalin
in December 1932 declared the plan a success to the Central Committee, since
increases in the output of coal andiron would fuel future development.
During the second five−year plan (1933–37), on the basis of the huge
investment during the first plan, industry expanded extremely rapidly, and
nearly reached the plan. By 1937 coal output was 127 million tons, pig iron
14.5 million tons, and there had been very rapid developments in the armaments
industry.
While undoubtedly marking a tremendous leap in industrial capacity, the
first Five Year Plan was extremely harsh on industrial workers; quotas were
difficult to fulfill, requiring that miners put in 16 to 18−hour workdays. Failure
60
to fulfill the quotas could result in treason charges. Working conditions were
poor, even hazardous. By some estimates, 127,000 workers died during the four
years (from 1928 to 1932). Due to the allocation of resources for industry along
with decreasing productivity since collectivization, a famine occurred. The use
of forced labor must also not be overlooked. In the construction of the industrial
complexes, inmates of labor camps were used as expendable resources. But
conditions improved rapidly during the second plan. Throughout the 1930s,
industrialization was combined with a rapid expansion of education at schools
and in higher education.
Prisoner labour at the construction of
Belomorkanal, 1931–33
From 1921 until 1954, during the period of state−guided, forced
industrialization, it is claimed 3.7 million people were sentenced for alleged
counter−revolutionary crimes, including 0.6 million sentenced to death, 2.4
million sentenced to labor camps, and 0.7 million sentenced to expatriation.
Other estimates put these figures much higher. Much like with the famines, the
evidence supporting these high numbers is disputed by some historians,
although this is a minority view. The peak of the repressions was during the
great Purge of 1937–8, and it had the effect of greatly slowing down production
in 1937.
61
Gulag
prisoner population statistics from 1934 to 1953
In 1928 Ukraine received over 20% of the total investments that meant
that from 1500 new industrial enterprises, established in the USSR, 400 of them
accounted forUkraine. Some of those plants were huge. Dnieproges, erected in
1932 by the force of 10 thousand workers, was the biggest hydroelectric power
station in Europe. New metallurgical plant in Zaporizhye and tractor plant in
Kharkiv was the biggest in their area. In Donetsk and Krivoy Rog’s basins so
many plants were established, that the whole district looked like vast building
site.
Flag of Soviet Ukraine.
In spite of those shortages the first five-year plan achieved striking
success. In 1940 the industrial potential of Ukraine in eight times exceeded the
level of 1913 (in Russia – in nine times). Productivity of labor also increased
(though wages generally decreased). Thus if the whole USSR from the fifth of
the biggest industrial country in the world turned to the second, Ukraine (which
under the production power approximately was equal to France), turned to one
of the leading industrial countries in Europe.
62
Comparative Growth: Industrial Production Average Annual Growth (%)
Collectivization in the Soviet Union was a policy pursued
under Stalin between 1928 and 1940. The goal of this policy was to consolidate
individual land and labour intocollective farms (Russian: колхо́з, kolkhoz,
plural kolkhozy). The Soviet leadership was confident that the replacement of
individual peasant farms by kolkhozy would immediately increase the food
supply for urban populations, the supply of raw materials for processing
industry, and agricultural exports. Collectivization was thus regarded as the
solution to the crisis of agricultural distribution (mainly in grain deliveries) that
had developed since 1927. This problem became more acute as the Soviet
Union pressed ahead with its ambitious industrialization program.
Peasants having lunch in a commune.
Already in the early 1930s over 90% of agricultural land was
"collectivized" as rural households entered collective farms with their land,
livestock, and other assets. The sweeping collectivization often involved
63
tremendous human and social costs while the issue of economic advantages of
collective farms remains largely undecided.
The idea of collective farms was seen by peasants as a revival of serfdom.
Soviet propaganda poster: "Comrade, come and join
the kolkhoz!"
The Soviet Communist Party had never been happy with private
agriculture and saw collectivization as the best remedy for the problem. Lenin
claimed "Small-scale production gives birth to capitalism and the bourgeoisie
constantly, daily, hourly, with elemental force, and in vast proportions."Apart
from ideological goals, Stalin also wished to embark on a program of rapid
heavy industrialization which required larger surpluses to be extracted from the
agricultural sector in order to feed a growing industrial work force and to pay
for imports of machinery. The state also hoped to export grain, a source of
foreign currency needed to import technologies necessary for heavy
industrialization. Social and ideological goals would also be served though
mobilization of the peasants in a co-operative economic enterprise which would
produce higher returns for the State and could serve a secondary purpose of
providing social services to the people.
Faced with the refusal to hand grain over, a decision was made at a
plenary session of the Central Committee in November 1929 to embark on a
nationwide program of collectivization.
In November 1929, the Central Committee decided to implement
accelerated collectivization in the form of kolkhozes and sovkhozes. This
marked the end of the New Economic Policy (NEP), which had allowed
peasants to sell their surpluses on the open market. Stalin had many so-called
"kulaks" transported to collective farms in distant places to work in agricultural
labor camps. It has been calculated that one in five of these deportees, many of
them women and children, died. In all, 6 million peasants lost their lives to the
64
conditions of the transportation or the conditions of the work camps. In
response to this, many peasants began to resist, often arming themselves against
the activists sent from the towns. As a form of protest, many peasants preferred
to slaughter their animals for food rather than give them over to collective
farms, which produced a major reduction in livestock.
Collectivization had been encouraged since the revolution, but in 1928,
only about one percent of farm land was collectivized, and despite efforts to
encourage and coerce collectivization, the rather optimistic First Five Year
Plan only forecast 15 percent of farms to be run collectively.
The situation changed incredibly quickly in the fall of 1929 and winter of
1930. Between September and December 1929, collectivization increased from
7.4% to 15%, but in the first two months of 1930, 11 million households joined
collectivized farms, pushing the total to nearly 60% almost overnight.
To assist collectivization, the Party decided to send 25,000 "socially
conscious" industry workers to the countryside. This was accomplished during
1929–1933, and these workers have become known as twenty-fivethousanders ("dvadtsat'pyat'tysyachniki"). Shock brigades were used to force
reluctant peasants into joining the collective farms and remove those who were
declared kulaks and their "agents".
Agricultural work was envisioned on a mass scale. Huge glamorous
columns of machines were to work the fields, in total contrast to peasant smallscale work.
Due to high government quotas peasants got, as a rule, less for their labor
than they did before collectivization, and some refused to work. Merle
Fainsod estimated that, in 1952, collective farm earnings were only one fourth
of the cash income from private plots on Soviet collective farms. In many cases,
the immediate effect of collectivization was to reduce output and cut the
number of livestock in half. The subsequent recovery of the agricultural
production was also impeded by the losses suffered by the Soviet Union
duringWorld War II and the severe drought of 1946. However the largest loss
of livestock was caused by collectivization for all animals except pigs. The
numbers of cows in the USSR fell from 33.2 million in 1928 to 27.8 million in
1941 and to 24.6 million in 1950. The number of pigs fell from 27.7 million in
1928 to 27.5 million in 1941 and then to 22.2 million in 1950. The number of
sheep fell from 114.6 million in 1928 to 91.6 million in 1941 and to 93.6
million in 1950. The number of horses fell from 36.1 million in 1928 to 21.0
million in 1941 and to 12.7 million in 1950. Only by the late 1950s did Soviet
farm animal stocks begin to approach 1928 levels.
65
Despite the initial plans, collectivization, accompanied by the bad harvest
of 1932–1933, did not live up to expectations. The CPSU blamed problems
on kulaks (Russian:fist; prosperous peasants), who were organizing resistance
to collectivization. Allegedly, many kulaks had been hoarding grain in order to
speculate on higher prices.
The Soviet government responded to these acts by cutting off food
rations to peasants and areas where there was opposition to collectivization,
especially in the Ukraine. Hundreds of thousands of those who opposed
collectivization were executed or sent to forced-labor camps. Many peasant
families
were
forcibly
resettled
in Siberia andKazakhstan into exile
settlements and a significant number died on the way.
On August 7, 1932, the Decree about the Protection of Socialist
Property proclaimed that the punishment for theft of kolkhoz or cooperative
property was the death sentence, which "under extenuating circumstances"
could be replaced by at least ten years of incarceration. With what some called
the Law of Spikelets ("Закон о колосках"), peasants (including children) who
hand-collected or gleaned grain in the collective fields after the harvest were
arrested for damaging the state grain production. Martin Amis writes in Koba
the Dread that the number of sentences for this particular offense in the bad
harvest period from August 1932 to December 1933 was 125,000.
Between 1929 and 1932 there was a massive fall in agricultural
production and famine in the countryside. Stalin blamed the well-to-do
peasants, referred to as 'kulaks', who he said had sabotaged grain collection and
resolved to eliminate them as a class. Estimates suggest that about a million socalled 'kulak' families, or perhaps some five million people, were sent to forced
labor camps. Estimates of the deaths from starvation or disease directly caused
by collectivization have been estimated as between four and ten million.
According to official Soviet figures some 24 million peasants disappeared from
rural areas with only an extra 12.6 million moving to state jobs. The implication
is that the total death toll (both direct and indirect) for Stalin's collectivization
program was on the order of twelve million people.
In 1945 Joseph Stalin confides to Winston Churchill at Yalta that 10
million people have died in the course of collectivization.
5. The famine. Great Purge.
The
origins
of
the
word
Holodomor
come
from
the Ukrainian words holod, ‘hunger’, and mor, ‘plague’, possibly from the
expression moryty holodom, ‘to inflict death by hunger’. The Ukrainian verb
"moryty" (морити) means "to poison somebody, drive to exhaustion or to
torment somebody". The perfect form of the verb "moryty" is "zamoryty" —
66
"kill or drive to death by hunger, exhausting work". The neologism
“Holodomor” is given in the modern, two-volume dictionary of the Ukrainian
language as "artificial hunger, organised in vast scale by the criminal regime
against the country's population." Sometimes the expression is translated into
English as "murder by hunger or starvation."
The famine affected the Ukrainian SSR as well as the Moldavian
ASSR (a part of the Ukrainian S.S.R. at the time) between 1932 and 1933.
However, not every part suffered from the Holodomor for the whole period; the
greatest number of victims was recorded in the spring of 1933. It is believed
that over 12 million Ukrainians died in this small time period.
Child victim of the Holodomor
The first reports of mass malnutrition and deaths from starvation emerged
from 2 urban area of Uman - by the time Vinnytsya and Kiev oblasts dated by
67
beginning of January 1933. By mid-January 1933 there were reports about mass
“difficulties” with food in urban areas that had been undersupplied through the
rationing system and deaths from starvation among people who were withdrawn
from rationing supply according to Central Committee of the Communist Party
of Ukraine Decree December 1932. By the beginning of February 1933,
according to received reports from local authorities and Ukrainian GPU, the
most affected area was listed as Dnipropetrovsk Oblast which also suffered
from epidemics of typhus and malaria. Odessa and Kiev oblasts were second
and third respectively. By mid-March, most reports originated from Kiev
Oblast.
By mid-April 1933, the Kharkiv Oblast reached the top of the most
affected list, while Kiev, Dnipropetrovsk, Odessa, Vinnytsya, Donetsk oblasts
and Moldavian SSR followed it. Last reports about mass deaths from starvation
dated mid-May through the beginning of June 1933 originated from raions in
Kiev and Kharkiv oblasts. The “less affected” list noted the Chernihiv
Oblast and northern parts of Kiev and Vinnytsya oblasts. According to the
Central Committee of the CP(b) of Ukraine Decree as of February 8 1933, no
hunger cases should have remained untreated, and all local authorities were
directly obliged to submit reports about numbers suffering from hunger, the
reasons for hunger, number of deaths from hunger, food aid provided from local
sources and centrally provided food aid required. Parallel reporting and food
assistance were managed by the GPU of the Ukrainian SSR. Many regional
reports and most of the central summary reports are available from present-day
central and regional Ukrainian archives. There is documentary evidence of
widespread cannibalism during the Holodomor. The Soviet regime of the time
even printed posters declaring: "To eat your own children is a barbarian act."
68
The reasons for the famine are a subject of scholarly and political debate.
Some scholars view the famine as a consequence of the economic problems
associated with radical economic changes implemented during the period
of Soviet industrialization. However it has been suggested by other historians
that the famine was an attack on Ukrainian nationalism engineered by Soviet
leadership of the time and thus may fall under the legal definition of genocide.
By the end of 1933, millions of people had starved to death or had
otherwise died unnaturally in Ukraine, as well as in other Soviet republics. The
total estimate of the famine victims Soviet-wide is given as 6-7 million or 6-8
million. The Soviet Union long denied that the famine had ever taken place, and
the NKVD (and later KGB — the public and secret police organization of the
Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including
political repression, during the era of Stalin) archives on the Holodomor period
opened very slowly. The exact number of the victims remains unknown and is
probably impossible to estimate even within a margin of error of a hundred
thousand.Numbers as high as seven to ten million are sometimes given in the
mediaand a number as high as ten or even twenty million is sometimes cited in
political speeches.
69
One reason for estimate variance is that some assess the number of
people who died within the 1933 borders of Ukraine; while others are based on
deaths within current borders of Ukraine. Other estimates are based on deaths of
Ukrainians in the Soviet Union. Some estimates use a very simple methodology
based percentage of deaths that was reported in one area and applying the
percentage to the entire country. Others use more sophisticated techniques that
involves analyzing the demographic statistics based on various archival data.
Some question the accuracy of Soviet censuses since they may have been
doctored to support Soviet propaganda. Other estimates come from recorded
discussion between world leaders like Churchill and Stalin. For example the
estimate of ten million deaths, which is attributed to Soviet official sources,
could be based on a misinterpretation of the memoirs of Winston Churchill who
gave an account of his conversation with Stalin that took place on August
16, 1942. In that conversation,Stalin gave Churchill his estimates of the number
of "kulaks" who were repressed for resisting collectivization as 10 million, in
all of the Soviet Union, rather than only in Ukraine. When using this number,
Stalin implied that it included not only those who lost their lives, but also
forcibly deported.
70
A number of difficulties exist when attempting to estimate casualty rates.
Some estimates include the death toll from political repression including those
who died in the Gulag, while others refer only to those who starved to death. In
addition, many of the estimates are based on different time periods. Thus, a
definitive number of deaths continues to be a source of great debate.
The Soviet archives show that excess deaths in Ukraine in 1932-1933
numbered 1.54 million. In 1932-1933, there were a combined 1.2 million cases
of typhus and 500,000 cases of typhoid fever. All major types of disease, apart
from cancer, tend to increase during famine as a result of undernourishment
lowering resistance and generating unsanitary conditions; thus these deaths
resulted primarily from lowered resistance rather than starvation per se. In the
years 1932–34, the largest rate of increase was recorded for typhus, which is
71
spread by lice. In conditions of harvest failure and increased poverty, the
number of lice is likely to increase, and the herding of refugees at railway
stations, on trains and elsewhere facilitates their spread. In 1933, the number of
recorded cases was twenty times the 1929 level. The number of cases per head
of population recorded in Ukraine in 1933 was already considerably higher than
in the USSR as a whole. But by June 1933, incidence in Ukraine had increased
to nearly ten times the January level and was higher than in the rest of the
USSR taken as a whole.
Rate of population decline in Ukraine
and South Russia. 1929-1933.The map was created according to the datas of the
localities affected by the Holomodor and extrapolated to the post-WW2
administrative
divisions.
For
example,
in
the Moldavian
SSR,
only Transnistria have been affected by the Holodomor. In the Odessa Oblast,
the Bugeac was not affected by the Holomodor.
To honour those who perished in the Holodomor, monuments have been
dedicated and public events held annually in Ukraine and worldwide. The first
public monument to the Holodomor was erected and dedicated outside City
Hall in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 1983 to mark the 50th anniversary of the
famine-genocide. Since then, the fourth Saturday in November has in many
jurisdictions been marked as the official day of remembrance for people who
died as a result of the 1932-33 Holodomor and political repression.
72
A monument in the capital
of Ukraine - Kiev
In 2006, the Holodomor Remembrance Day took place on November 25.
President Viktor Yushchenko directed, in decree No. 868/2006, that a minute of
silence should be observed at 4 o'clock in the afternoon on that Saturday. The
document specified that flags in Ukraine should fly at half-staff as a sign of
mourning. In addition, the decree directed that entertainment events are to be
restricted and television and radio programming adjusted accordingly.
A Holodomor monument in Calgary, Canada
In 2007, the 74th anniversary of the Holodomor was commemorated in Kiev for
three days on the Maidan Nezalezhnosti. As part of the three day event, from
November 23-25th, video testimonies of the communist regime's crimes in
Ukraine, and documentaries by famous domestic and foreign film directors are
73
being shown. Additionally, experts and scholars gave lectures on the
topic.Additionally, on November 23, 2007, the National Bank of Ukraine issued
a set of two commemorative coins remembering the Holodomor.
As of September 2009, Ukrainian schoolchildren will take a more extensive
course of the history of the Holodomor and OUN and UPA fighters.
"Light the candle"
event at a Holodomor memorial in Kiev, Ukraine
Great
Purge was
a
series
of
campaigns
of political
repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin in
1936–1938. It involved a large-scalepurge of the Communist Party and
Government officials, repression of peasants, Red Army leadership, and the
persecution of unaffiliated persons, characterized by widespread police
surveillance, widespread suspicion of "saboteurs", imprisonment, and
executions. According to the archive data, in 1937–38 the number of death
sentences was 681,692 and many more died in GULAG labor camps.
The term "purge" in Soviet political slang was an abbreviation of the
expression purge of the Party ranks. In 1933, for example, some 400,000
people were expelled from the Party. But from 1936 until 1953, the term
changed its meaning, because being expelled from the Party came to mean
almost certain arrest, imprisonment, or even execution.
74
The
former NKVD
Headquarters on Lubyanka Square designed by Aleksey Schusev. Now serves
the FSB.
The political purge was primarily an effort by Stalin to eliminate
challenge from past and potential opposition groups, including left and right
wings led by Leon Trotsky andNikolai Bukharin, respectively. Following
the Civil War and reconstruction of the Soviet economy in the late 1920s, the
"temporary" wartime dictatorship which had passed from Lenin to Stalin
seemed no longer necessary to veteran Communists. Stalin's opponents on both
sides of the political spectrum chided him as undemocratic and lax on
bureaucratic corruption. These tendencies may have accumulated substantial
support among the working class by attacking the privileges and luxuries the
state offered to its high-paid elite. TheRyutin Affair seemed to vindicate the
Stalin's suspicions. He therefore enforced a ban on party factions and banned
those party members who had opposed him, effectively endingdemocratic
centralism. In the new form of Party organization, the Politburo, and Stalin in
particular, were the sole dispensers of communist ideology. This necessitated
the elimination of all Marxists with different views, especially those among the
prestigious "old guard" of revolutionaries. Communist heroes
like Tukhachevsky and Béla Kun, as well as Lenin's entire politburo, were shot
for minor disagreements in policy. The NKVD were equally merciless towards
the supporters, friends, and family of these heretical Marxists, whether they
lived in Russia or not. The most infamous case is that of Leon Trotsky, whose
family was almost annihilated, before he himself was killed in Mexico by
NKVD agentRamón Mercader, who was part of an assassination task force put
together by Special Agent Pavel Sudoplatov, under the personal orders of
Joseph Stalin.
Another official justification was to remove any possible "fifth column"
in case of a war, but this is less substantiated by independent sources. This is
the theory proposed by Vyacheslav Molotov, a member of the Stalinist ruling
circle, who participated in the Stalinist repression as a member of the Politburo
and who signed many death warrants. Stalin's vehemence in eliminating
75
political opponents may have had some basis in, and was definitely given
official justification by, the need to solidify Russia against her neighbors, most
notably Germany and Japan, whose governments had previously invaded, and
now openly threatened, Soviet territory. A famous quote of Stalin's is "We are
50 or 100 years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this lag in
10 years. Either we do it, or they crush us." The Communist Party also wanted
to eliminate what it perceived as "socially dangerous elements", such as exkulaks, ex-"nepmen", former members of opposing political parties such as
the Social Revolutionaries, and former Tsarist officials.
Repression against perceived enemies of the Bolsheviks had been a
systematic method of instilling fear and facilitating social control, being
continuously applied by Leninsince the October Revolution, although there had
been periods of heightened repression, such as the Red Terror, the deportation
of kulaks who opposed collectivization, and a severe famine. A distinctive
feature of the Great Purge was that, for the first time, the ruling party itself
underwent repressions on a massive scale. Nevertheless, only a minority of
those affected by the purges were Communist Party members and officeholders.The purge of the Party was accompanied by the purge of the whole
society.
In the 1920s and 1930s, two thousand writers, intellectuals, and artists
were imprisoned and 1,500 died in prisons and concentration camps. After
sunspot development research was judged un-Marxist, twenty-seven
astronomers disappeared between 1936 and 1938. The Meteorological Office
was violently purged as early as 1933 for failing to predict weather harmful to
the crops. But the toll was especially high among writers. Those who perished
during the Great Purge include:
The great poet Osip Mandelstam was arrested for reciting his famous
anti-Stalin poem Stalin Epigram to his circle of friends in 1934. After
intervention by Nikolai Bukharinand Boris Pasternak (Stalin jotted down in
Bukharin's letter with feigned indignation: “Who gave them the right to arrest
Mandelstam?”), Stalin instructed NKVD to "isolate but preserve" him, and
Mandelstam was "merely" exiled to Cherdyn for 3 years. But this proved to be
temporary reprieve. In May 1938, he was promptly arrested again for "counterrevolutionary activities". In August 2, 1938, Mandelstam was sentenced to five
years in correction camps and died on December 27, 1938 at a transit camp near
Vladivostok. Boris Pasternak himself was nearly purged, but Stalin is said to
have crossed Pasternak's name off the list, saying "Don't touch this cloud
dweller."
76
1938 NKVD arrest photo of the poet Osip Mandelstam, who died in NKVD custody.
Officially his death was of natural causes, but it is possible that he was murdered.
Writer Isaac Babel was arrested in May 1939, and according to his
confession paper that contained blood stain he "confessed" to being a member
of Trotskyist organization and being recruited by French writer Andre
Malraux to spy for France. In the final interrogation, he retracted his confession
and wrote letters to prosecutor's office that he implicated innocent people, but to
no avail. Babel was tried before an NKVD troika and convicted of
simultaneously spying for the French, Austrians, and Leon Trotsky, as well as
"membership in a terrorist organization." On January 27, 1940, he was shot
in Butyrka prison.
Butyrka prison, 1890s
Writer Boris Pilnyak was arrested on October 28, 1937 for counterrevolutionary acitivies, spying and terrorism. One report alleged that "he held
secret meetings with(Andre) Gide, and supplied him with information about the
situation in the USSR. There is no doubt that Gide used this information in his
book attacking the USSR." Pilnyak was tried on April 21, 1938. In the
proceeding that lasted 15 minutes, he was condemned to death and executed
shortly afterward.
Theater director Vsevolod Meyerhold was arresed in 1939 and shot in
February 1940 for "spying" for Japanese and British intelligence. In a letter
to Vyacheslav Molotovdated January 13, 1940, he wrote: "The investigators
began to use force on me, a sick 65-year-old man. I was made to lie face down
and beaten on the soles of my feet and my spine with a rubber strap... For the
next few days, when those parts of my legs were covered with extensive
internal hemorrhaging, they again beat the red-blue-and-yellow bruises with the
strap and the pain was so intense that it felt as if boiling water was being poured
on these sensitive areas. I howled and wept from the pain. I incriminated myself
77
in the hope that by telling them lies I could end the ordeal. When I lay down on
the cot and fell asleep, after 18 hours of interrogation, in order to go back in an
hour's time for more, I was woken up by my own groaning and because I was
jerking about like a patient in the last stages of typhoid fever." His wife, the
actress Zinaida Raikh, was murdered in her apartment by NKVD agents. She
was stabbed 17 times, two of them through the eyes.
Georgian poet Titsian Tabidze was arrested on October 10, 1937 on
charge of treason and was tortured in a prison. In a bitter humor, he named only
the 18th-century Georgian poet Besiki as his accomplice in antiSoviet activities. He was executed on December 16, 1937. His friend and
poet Paolo Iashvili, having earlier been forced to denounce several of his
associates as the enemies of the people, shot himself with a hunting gun in the
building of the Writers’ Union. (He witnessed and even had to participate in
public trials that ousted many of his associates from the Writers' Union,
effectively condemning them to death. When Lavrenty Beria further pressured
him with alternative of denouncing his life-long friend Tabidze or being
arrested and tortured by the NKVD, he killed himself.)
In early 1937, poet Pavel Vasiliev is said to have defended Bukharin as
"a man of the highest nobility and the conscience of peasant Russia" at the time
of his denunciation at the Pyatakov Trial(Second Moscow Trial) and damned
other writers then signing the routine condemnations as "pornographic scrawls
on the margins of Russian literature." He was promptly shot on July 16, 1937.
Jan Sten, philosopher and deputy head of the Marx-Engels Institute was
Stalin's private tutor when Stalin was trying hard to study Hegel's dialectic.
(Stalin received lessons twice a week from 1925 to 1928, but he found it
difficult to master even some of the basic ideas. Stalin developed enduring
hostility toward German idealistic philosphy, which he called "the aristocratic
reaction to the French Revolution") In 1937, Sten was seized on the direct order
of Stalin, who declared him one of the chiefs of Menshevizing idealists. On
June 19, 1937, Sten was put to death in Lefortovo prison.
On July 30, 1937 the NKVD Order no. 00447 was issued, directed
against "ex-kulaks" and other "anti-Soviet elements" (such as former officials of
the Tsarist regime, former members of political parties other than the
communist party, etc.).
78
Katyn massacre 1943 exhumation. Photo
made by Polish Red Cross delegation.
The implementation was swift. Already by August 15, 1937, 101,000
were arrested and 14,000 convicted.
According to the declassified Soviet archives, during 1937 and 1938, the
NKVD detained 1,548,367 victims, of whom 681,692 were shot - an average of
1,000 executions a day. Historian Michael Ellman claims the best estimate of
deaths brought about by Soviet Repression during these two years is the range
950,000 to 1.2 million, which includes deaths in detention and those who died
shortly after being released from the Gulag as a result of their treatment in it.
He also states that this is the estimate which should be used by historians and
teachers of Russian history. According to Memorial society
On the cases investigated by the State Security Department of NKVD
(GUGB NKVD):
o
At least 1,710,000 people were arrested
o
At least 1,440,000 people were sentenced
o
At least 724,000 were executed. Among them:

At least 436,000 people were sentenced to
death by NKVD troikas as part of the Kulak operation

At least 247,000 people were sentenced to
death by NKVD Dvoikas' and the Local Special Troykas as
part of the Ethnic Operation

At least 41,000 people were sentenced to death
by Military Courts
Among other cases in October 1936-November 1938:
o
At least 400,000 were sentenced to labor camps by
Police Troikas as Socially Harmful Elements (социальновредный элемент, СВЭ)
o
At least 200,000 were exiled or deported
by Administrative procedures
79
At least 2 million were sentenced by courts for
common crimes, among them 800,000 were sentenced
to Gulag camps.
Some experts believe the evidence released from the Soviet archives is
understated, incomplete or unreliable. For example, Robert Conquest suggests
that the probable figure for executions during the years of the Great Purge is not
681,692, but some two and a half times as high. He believes that the KGB was
covering its tracks by falsifying the dates and causes of death of rehabilitated
victims.
o
Percentage of people with Ukrainian as their native language according to 2001 census (in regions).
80
Ukraine
produces the fourth largest number of post-secondary graduates in Europe,
while being ranked seventh in population.
Ethnic Ukrainians in Ukraine (2001)
81
Ukrainian administrative divisions by monthly salary
82
About number and composition population of
UKRAINE
by data All-Ukrainian population census'2001 data
The peculiarity of the national structure of the
population of Ukraine is its multinational composition.
According to All-Ukrainian population census data, the
representatives of more than 130 nationalities and ethnic
groups live on the territory of the country.
The data about the most numerous nationalities of
Ukraine are mentioned below:
Total
(thousand
persons)
as % to the
result
2001
as % to
1989
200
1
198
9
Ukrainians
37541.
7
77.8
72.7
100.3
Russians
8334.1
17.3
22.1
73.4
Belarussians
275.8
0.6
0.9
62.7
Moldavians
258.6
0.5
0.6
79.7
248.2
0.5
in 5.3
0.0 times more
Bulgarians
204.6
0.4
0.5
87.5
Hungarians
156.6
0.3
0.4
96.0
Romanians
151.0
0.3
0.3
112.0
Poles
144.1
0.3
0.4
65.8
Jews
103.6
0.2
0.9
21.3
0.2
in 1.8
0.1 times more
Crimean
Tatars
Armenians
99.9
83
Greeks
91.5
0.2
0.2
92.9
Tatars
73.3
0.2
0.2
84.4
Gipsies
47.6
0.1
0.1
99.3
45.2
0.1
0.0
122.2
Georgians
34.2
0.1
0.0
145.3
Germans
33.3
0.1
0.1
88.0
Gagausians
31.9
0.1
0.1
99.9
177.1
0.4
0.4
83.9
Azerbaijanian
s
Other
The part of Ukrainians in the national structure of
population of region is the largest. it accounts for 3.754.700
people. or 77.8% of the population. During the years that have
passed since the census of the population ‘1989. the number of
Ukrainians has increased by 0.3% and their part among other
citizens of Ukraine has increased by 5.1 percentage points.
Russians are the second numerous nation of Ukraine.
Since 1989 their number has decreased by 26.6% and at the
date of the census it accounted for 8.334.100 people. The part
of Russians in total population has decreased by 4.8
percentage points and accounted for 17.3%.
84
References:
1. Декларація про державний суверенітет України. Прийнята Верховною
Радою
Української РСР 16 липня 1990 року. - К. 1991.
85
2. Акт проголошення незалежності України, прийнятий Верховною Радою
України 24 серпня 1991 року. - К. 1991.
3. Конституція України. Прийнята на п'ятій сесії Верховної Ради України 28
червня 1996 року. - К. 1996.
4. Крип'якевич І. П. Історія України. - Львів, 1990.
5. Полонська-Василенко Н. Історія України. Т. 1-2.-К. 1992.
6. Andrew Wilson. The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation. Yale University
Press;
2nd edition (2002).
7. Anna Reid. Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine. London,
Orion Books; 4th impression (1998, preface 2003).
8. Mykhailo Hrushevsky. History of Ukraine-Rus’ in 9 volumes.
9. Orest Subtelny. Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press
(1988).
10. Paul Robert Magocsi. A History of Ukraine. Toronto: University of Toronto
Press (1996).
Development of independent Ukraine (1994-2010).
Plan
1. Presidency of Leonid Kuchma and the problems of socio-economic
development of Ukraine.
2. “Orange revolution” and its consequences.
3. Presidency of Viktor Yushchenko. Domestic and foreign policy of Ukraine.
1. Presidency of Leonid Kuchma and the problems of socio-economic
development of Ukraine.
Parliamentary and presidential elections were held in Ukraine in 1994. In
the first contest, candidates affiliated with the revived Communist Party
emerged as the largest single group, winning approximately one-fifth of the
seats; factoring in the deputies of the Socialist and Agrarian parties, the left now
constituted a strong—although not united—bloc in the new parliament. In the
presidential election the incumbent president, Kravchuk, was narrowly defeated
by former prime minister Kuchma, who promised economic reform and better
relations with Russia.
86
Leonid
Kravchuk
Leonid Kuchma
The two contests seemed to reveal a political polarization between
eastern and western Ukraine. Kuchma and the left received their greatest
support from the more heavily industrialized and Russophone regions of eastern
Ukraine, while Kravchuk did particularly well in western Ukraine, where
Ukrainian speakers and national democrats predominated. Nevertheless, the
minimal number of irregularities in the elections and the peaceful replacement
of the president were widely interpreted as signs that democracy was taking
root in Ukraine.
Once in office, Kuchma maintained many of his predecessor’s policies.
Significantly, while seeking more cordial relations with Moscow, he did not
reorient Ukraine’s foreign policy northward. Ukraine continued to participate in
the CIS but in much the same manner as it had previously. Moreover, Kuchma
maintained Ukraine’s pro-Western policies and aspirations. In 1994 Ukraine
joined the Partnership for Peace Programme run by the North Atlantic Treaty
87
Organization (NATO); the country also established a “special partnership” with
the organization in 1996. In 1995 Ukraine joined the Council of Europe.
Leonid
Kuchma
with
Russian
President Vladimir Putin.
Kuchma faced a major challenge in dealing with a strong parliamentary
opposition, particularly in respect to economic reform. Ukraine managed to
achieve macroeconomic stabilization by 1996, the year in which it introduced
its long-awaited currency, the hryvnya. However, the economy continued to
perform poorly through the end of the decade. Cumbersome bureaucratic
procedures and unenforced economic legislation led business to be both
overregulated and rife with corruption. In addition, the country was able to
attract only a limited amount of foreign investment. The Russian economic
crisis of 1998 negatively affected Ukraine’s economy as well. But in 1999 the
introduction of tax-reform measures saw a growth in the number of small
private businesses established or emerging from the country’s significant
shadow economy. At the turn of the 21st century the legitimate economy began
to grow.
In the 1998 parliamentary elections the Communist Party actually
improved its showing. In the 1999 presidential election, however, Kuchma
defeated Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko by a resounding margin.
Politically, Kuchma had benefited from the splintering of the left among several
candidates. He also had campaigned vigorously, using all the means available to
him, particularly the media. Indeed, a strong bias in favour of Kuchma became
evident in the television coverage of the election. International observers were
critical of Kuchma’s handling of the media and some obvious electoral
irregularities. His margin of victory, however, indicated that these factors alone
had not determined the outcome of the vote.
The result of the 1999 election was significant in two respects. First, it
represented a rejection of the communist past. Some observers remarked that it
even constituted a second referendum on independence. Second, the vote did
not split neatly along geographical lines, indicating that the east-west divide
seen in the 1994 elections was not as important a factor in Ukrainian politics as
many analysts had suggested.
During Kuchma’s second term, conflicts between right- and left-wing
forces sometimes threatened political stability. Nevertheless, newly appointed
88
prime minister Viktor Yushchenko shepherded economic reforms through the
legislature. The economy grew steadily in the first years of the 21st century, but
the political situation remained tense in Ukraine as it sought membership in
NATO and the European Union (EU) while also pursuing closer relations with
Russia—a delicate balancing act. In 2003 Ukraine accepted in principle a
proposal to establish a “joint economic space” with Russia, Belarus, and
Kazakhstan; however, Ukrainian-Russian relations were strained by Russian
accusations of deteriorating conditions for the Russian minority in Ukraine,
along with Ukrainian concerns over what it viewed to be Russian expansionist
designs in the Crimea.
Yushchenko became an opposition leader following his dismissal as
prime minister in 2001. The following year, audio tapes allegedly revealed
Kuchma’s approval of the sale of a radar system to Iraq, in violation of a United
Nations Security Council resolution, and implicated him in the assassination of
a dissident journalist in 2000. Opposition groups called for the impeachment of
Kuchma, who denied the allegations.
Kuchma resigned from this position in September 1993 to successfully
run for the presidency in 1994 on a platform to boost the economy by restoring
economic relations with Russia and faster pro-market reforms. He was reelected in 1999 to his second term. During Kuchma's Presidency opposition
papers were closed and several journalists died in mysterious circumstances.
In October 1994, Kuchma announced comprehensive economic reforms,
including
reduced subsidies,
lifting
of
price
controls,
lower taxes, privatization of industry andagriculture,
and
reforms
in currency regulation and banking. The parliament approved the plan's main
points. The International Monetary Fund promised a $360 million loan to
initiate reforms.
Verkhovna Rada building, Kiev
89
The Verkhovna Rada building sits adjacent
to the Mariyinsky Palace, the official residence of the President of Ukraine.
He was re-elected in 1999 to his second term. Opponents accused him of
involvement in the killing in 2000 of journalist Georgiy Gongadze, which he
has always denied. Critics also blamed Kuchma for restrictions on press
freedom. Kuchma is believed to have played a key role in sacking
the Cabinet of Viktor Yushchenko by Verkhovna Rada onApril 26, 2001.
Kuchma's Prime Minister from 2002 until early January 2005 was Viktor
Yanukovych, after Kuchma dismissed Anatoliy Kinakh, his previous appointee.
Kuchma signed a "Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership"
with Russia, and endorsed a round of talks with the CIS. Additionally, he
referred to Russian as "an official language". He signed a special partnership
agreement with NATO and even raised the possibility of membership of the
alliance.
After Kuchma's popularity at home and abroad sank as he became mired
in corruption scandals, he turned to Russia as his new ally, saying Ukraine
needed a "multivector" foreign policy that balanced eastern and western
interests.
In September 2000 journalist Georgiy R. Gongadze disappeared and his
headless corpse was found on 3 November 2000. On 28 November, opposition
politicianOleksandr Moroz publicised secret tape recordings implicating
Kuchma in Gongadze's murder.
90
Oleksandr Moroz
In 2005 the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s office instigated criminal
proceedings against Kuchma and members of his former administration in
connection with the murder of Gongadze. It is rumored, however, that Kuchma
had been unofficially granted immunity from prosecution in return for his
graceful departure from office in 2005.
Georgiy Gongadze
Kuchma's role in the election's crisis of 2004 is not entirely clear. After
the second round on November 22, 2004, it appeared that Yanukovych had won
the election by fraud, which caused the opposition and independent observers to
dispute the results, leading to the Orange Revolution.
Kuchma was urged by Yanukovych and Viktor Medvedchuk (the head of
the presidential office) to declare a state of emergency and hold the
inauguration of Yanukovych. He denied the request by admittedly stating in a
phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin that he refused to
91
pass the government into the hands of an alleged Donetsk criminal. Later,
Yanukovych publicly accused Kuchma of a betrayal.
Vladimir Putin
Nevertheless, Kuchma refused to officially dismiss Prime Minister
Yanukovych after the parliament passed a motion of no confidence against the
Cabinet on December 1,2004.
Soon after, Kuchma left the country. He returned to Ukraine in March
2005.
2.“Orange revolution” and its consequences.
The Orange Revolution was a series of protests and political events that
took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the
immediate aftermath of the run-off vote of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential
election which was claimed to be marred by massive corruption, voter
intimidation and direct electoral fraud. Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, was the
focal point of the movement with thousands of protesters demonstrating daily.
Nationwide, the democratic revolution was highlighted by a series of acts
of civil disobedience, sit-ins, and general strikes organized by the opposition
movement.
Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Yanukovych
92
The protests were prompted by reports from several domestic and foreign
election monitors as well as the widespread public perception that the results of
the run-off vote of November 21, 2004 between leading candidates Viktor
Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych were rigged by the authorities in favor of
the latter. The nationwide protests succeeded when the results of the original
run-off were annulled, and a revote was ordered by Ukraine's Supreme
Court for December 26, 2004.
Official results of
the November 21 vote for each territory. Although the results have been heavily
manipulated, the map still shows a political divide between eastern and western
Ukraine.
Change in claimed
turnout between the 1st and 2nd rounds of the election according to the Central
Election Commission.
93
Results of the December
26, 2004 repeated run-off presidential election. Orange denotes provinces where
Yushchenko won the popular vote. Blue represents provinces where
Yanukovych led in the popular vote.
Under intense scrutiny by domestic and international observers, the
second run-off was declared to be "fair and free". The final results showed a
clear victory for Yushchenko, who received about 52 percent of the vote,
compared to Yanukovych's 44 percent. Yushchenko was declared the official
winner and with his inauguration on January 23, 2005 in Kiev, the Orange
Revolution ended.
Viktor Yanukovych
94
Orange-clad demonstrators gather in
the Independence Square in Kiev on 22 November, 2004. On some days, the
number of protesters in the center of Kiev reached hundreds of thousands (one
million by some estimates)
The 2004 presidential election in Ukraine featured two main candidates.
One was sitting Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, largely supported
by Leonid Kuchma (the outgoing President of Ukraine who already served two
terms in the office and was precluded from running himself due to
the constitutional term
limits).
The opposition candidate
was Viktor
Yushchenko, leader of the Our Ukraine faction in the Ukrainian parliament,
also a former Prime Minister (1999–2001).
Viktor Yushchenko, the main opposition candidate
The election was held in a highly charged atmosphere, with the
Yanukovych team and the outgoing president's administration using their
control of the government and state apparatus for intimidation of Yushchenko
and his supporters. In September 2004, Yushchenko suffered dioxin poisoning
under mysterious circumstances. While he survived and returned to the
campaign trail, the poisoning undermined his health and altered his appearance
dramatically (his face remains disfigured by the consequences to this day).
95
Protesters at Independence Square on the
first day of the Orange Revolution.
The two main candidates were neck and neck in the first-round vote held
on October 31, 2004, collecting 39.32% (Yanukovych) and 39.87%
(Yushchenko) of the vote cast. The candidates that came third and fourth
collected much less: Oleksandr Moroz of the Socialist Party of
Ukraine and Petro Symonenko of the Communist Party of Ukrainereceived
5.82% and 4.97%, respectively. Since no candidate carried more than 50% of
the cast ballots, a run-off vote between two leading candidates was mandated by
Ukrainian law. Soon after the run-off was announced, Oleksandr Moroz threw
his support behind Viktor Yushchenko. Another Ukrainian opposition leader,
the charismatic populist Yulia Tymoshenko, chose not to run herself. Promised
the position of Prime Minister if Yushchenko were to win the presidency,
Tymoshenko enthusiastically supported his presidential bid from the onset of
the campaign.
In the wake of the first round of the election many complaints regarding
voting irregularities in favor of the government supported Yanukovych were
raised. However, as it was clear that neither nominee was close enough to
collecting an outright majority in the first round, challenging the initial result
would not have affected the final outcome of the election. As such the
complaints were not actively pursued and both candidates concentrated on the
upcoming run-off scheduled for November 21.
Orange was originally adopted by the Yushchenko's camp as the
signifying color of his election campaign. Later the color gave name to an entire
series of political terms, such as the Oranges (Pomaranchevi in Ukrainian) for
his political camp and supporters. At the time when the mass protests grew, and
especially when they brought about political change in the country, the
term Orange Revolution came to represent the entire series of events.
96
An orange ribbon, a symbol of the Ukrainian Orange
Revolution. Ribbons are common symbols of non-violent protest.
In view of the success of using color as a symbol to mobilize supporters,
the Yanukovych camp chose blue for themselves.
Protests began on the eve of the second round of voting, as the official
count differed markedly from exit poll results which gave Yushchenko up to an
11% lead, while official results gave the election win to Yanukovych by 3%.
While Yanukovych supporters have claimed that Yushchenko's connections to
the Ukrainian media explain this disparity, the Yushchenko team publicized
evidence of many incidents of electoral fraud in favor of the governmentbacked Yanukovych, witnessed by many local and foreign observers. These
accusations were reinforced by similar allegations, though at a lesser scale,
during the first presidential run of October 31.
The Yushchenko campaign publicly called for protest on the dawn of
election day, November 21, 2004, when allegations of fraud began to spread.
Beginning on November 22, 2004, massive protests started in cities across
Ukraine: the largest, in Kiev's Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square),
attracted an estimated 500,000 participants, who onNovember 23, 2004,
peacefully marched in front of the headquarters of the Verkhovna Rada, the
Ukrainian parliament, many wearing orange or carrying orange flags, the color
of Yushchenko's campaign coalition.
The local councils in Kiev, Lviv, and several other cities passed, with the
wide popular support of their constituency, a largely symbolic refusal to accept
the legitimacy of the official election results, and Yushchenko took a
symbolic presidential oath. This "oath" taken by Yushchenko in half-empty
parliament chambers, lacking the quorum as only the Yushchenkoleaning factions were present, could not have any legal effect. But it was an
important symbolic gesture meant to demonstrate the resolve of the
Yushchenko campaign not to accept the compromised election results. In
response, Yushchenko's opponents denounced him for taking an illegitimate
oath, and even some of his moderate supporters were ambivalent about this act,
while a more radical side of the Yushchenko camp demanded him to act even
more decisively. Some observers argued that this symbolic presidential oath
might have been useful to the Yushchenko camp should events have taken a
97
more confrontational route. In such a scenario, this "presidential oath"
Yushchenko took could be used to lend legitimacy to the claim that he, rather
than his rival who tried to gain the presidency through alleged fraud, was a
true commander-in-chiefauthorized to give orders to the military and security
agencies.
At the same time, local officials in Eastern and Southern Ukraine, the
stronghold of Viktor Yanukovych, started a series of actions alluding to the
possibility of the breakup of Ukraine or an extra-constitutional federalization of
the country, should their candidate's claimed victory not be recognized.
Demonstrations of public support for Yanukovych were held throughout
Eastern Ukraine and some of his supporters arrived in Kiev. However, in Kiev
the pro-Yanukovych demonstrators were far outnumbered by Yushchenko
supporters, whose ranks were continuously swelled by new arrivals from many
regions of Ukraine. The scale of the demonstrations in Kiev was unprecedented.
By many estimates, on some days they drew up to one million people to the
streets, in freezing weather
Although Yushchenko entered into negotiations with outgoing
President Leonid Kuchma in an effort to peacefully resolve the situation, the
negotiations broke up onNovember 24, 2004. Yanukovych was officially
certified as the victor by the Central Election Commission, which itself was
allegedly involved in falsification of electoral results by withholding the
information it was receiving from local districts and running a parallel illegal
computer server to manipulate the results. The next morning after the
certification took place, Yushchenko spoke to supporters in Kiev, urging them
to begin a series of mass protests, general strikes and sit-ins with the intent of
crippling the government and forcing it to concede defeat.
In view of the threat of illegitimate government acceding to power,
Yushchenko's camp announced the creation of the Committee of National
Salvation which declared a nationwide political strike.
On December 1, 2004, the Verkhovna Rada passed a resolution that
strongly condemned pro-separatist and federalization actions, and passed a nonconfidence vote in theCabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, a decision Prime
Minister Yanukovych refused to recognize. By the Constitution of Ukraine, the
non-confidence vote mandated the government's resignation, but the parliament
had no means to enforce a resignation without the co-operation of Prime
Minister Yanukovych and outgoing President Kuchma.
On December 3, 2004, Ukraine's Supreme Court finally broke the
political deadlock. The court decided that due to the scale of the electoral fraud
98
it became impossible to establish the election results. Therefore, it invalidated
the official results that would have given Yanukovych the presidency. As a
resolution, the court ordered a revote of the run-off to be held on December
26, 2004. This decision was seen as a victory for the Yushchenko camp while
Yanukovych and his supporters favored a rerun of the entire election rather than
just the run-off, as a second-best option if Yanukovych was not awarded the
presidency. On December 8, 2004 the parliament amended laws to provide a
legal framework for the new round of elections. The parliament also approved
the changes to the Constitution, implementing a political reform backed by
outgoing President Kuchma as a part of a political compromise between the
acting authorities and opposition.
The December 26 revote was held under intense scrutiny of local and
international observers. The preliminary results, announced by the Central
Election Commission on December 28, gave Yushchenko and Yanukovych
51.99% and 44.20% of the total vote, respectively. The Yanukovych team
attempted to mount a fierce legal challenge to the election results using both the
Ukrainian courts and the Election Commission complaint procedures. However,
all their complaints were dismissed as without merit by both theSupreme Court
of Ukraine and the Central Election Commission. On January 10, 2005 the
Election Commission officially declared Yushchenko as the winner of the
presidential election with the final results falling within 0.01% of the
preliminary ones. This Election Commission announcement cleared the way for
Yushchenko's inauguration as the President of Ukraine. The official ceremony
took place in the Verkhovna Rada building on January 23, 2005 and was
followed by the "public inauguration" of the newly sworn President atMaidan
Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in front of hundreds of thousands of his
supporters. This event brought the Ukrainian Orange Revolution to its peaceful
conclusion.
According to one version of events recounted by The New York Times,
Ukrainian security agencies played an unusual role in the Orange Revolution,
with a KGB successor agency in the former Soviet state providing qualified
support to the political opposition. As per the paper report, on November
28, 2004 over 10,000 MVS (Internal Ministry) troops were mobilized to put
down the protests in Independence Square in Kiev by the order of their
commander, Lt. Gen. Sergei Popkov. The SBU (Security Service of Ukraine, a
successor to the KGB in Ukraine) warned opposition leaders of the
crackdown. Oleksander Galaka, head of GRU (military intelligence) made calls
to "prevent bloodshed". Col. Gen. Ihor Smeshko (SBU chief) and Maj.
99
Gen. Vitaly Romanchenko (military counter-intelligence chief) both claimed to
have warned Popkov to pull back his troops, which he did, preventing
bloodshed.
In addition to the desire to avoid bloodshed, the New York Times article
suggests that siloviki, as the security officers are often called in the countries of
the former Soviet Union, were motivated by personal aversion to the possibility
of having to serve president Yanukovych, who was in his youth convicted
of robbery and assault and had alleged connection with corrupt businessmen,
especially if he were to ascend to the presidency by fraud. The personal feelings
of Gen. Smeshko towards Yanukovych may also have played a role. Additional
evidence of Yushchenko's popularity and at least partial support among the
SBU officers is shown by the fact that several embarrassing proofs of electoral
fraud, including incriminating wiretap recordings of conversations among the
Yanukovych campaign and government officials discussing how to rig the
election, were provided to the Yushchenko camp. These conversations were
likely recorded and provided to the opposition by sympathizers in the Ukrainian
Security Services.
Many analysts believe the Orange Revolution was built on a pattern first
developed in the ousting of Slobodan Milošević in Serbia four years earlier, and
continuing with theRose Revolution in Georgia. Each of these victories, though
apparently spontaneous, was the result of extensive grassroots campaigning and
coalition-building among the opposition. Each included election victories
followed up by public demonstrations, after attempts by the incumbent to hold
onto power through electoral fraud.
Each of these social movements included extensive work by student
activists. The most famous of these was Otpor, the youth movement that helped
bring in Vojislav Koštunica. In Georgia the movement was called Kmara. In
Ukraine the movement has worked under the succinct slogan Pora ("It's Time").
Chair of Georgian Parliamentary Committee on Defense and Security Givi
Targamadze, former member of the Georgian Liberty Institute, as well as some
members of Kmara, were consulted by Ukrainian opposition leaders on
techniques of nonviolent struggle. Georgian rock bands Zumba, Soft Eject and
Green Room, which earlier had supported the Rose Revolution, organized a
solidarity concert in central Kiev to support Yushchenko’s cause in November
2004.
Activists in each of these movements were funded and trained in tactics
of political organization and nonviolent resistance by a coalition of Western
pollsters and professional consultants funded by a range of Western government
100
and non-government agencies. According to The Guardian, these include
the U.S. State Department andUSAID along with the National Democratic
Institute for International Affairs, the International Republican Institute,
the Bilderberg Group, the NGO Freedom House and George Soros's Open
Society Institute. The National Endowment for Democracy, a foundation
supported by the U.S. government, has supported non-governmental
democracy-building efforts in Ukraine since 1988.[15] Writings on nonviolent
struggle by Gene Sharp formed the strategic basis of the student campaigns.
Round table talks with Ukrainian and
foreign representatives during the Orange Revolution on December 1 in Kiev.
Former president Leonid Kravchuk accused Russian oligarch, Boris
Berezovsky, of financing Yushchenko's campaign, and provided copies of
documents showing money transfers from companies he said are controlled by
Berezovsky to companies controlled by Yuschenko's official backers.
Berezovsky has confirmed that he met Yushchenko's representatives in London
before the election, and that the money was transferred from his companies, but
he refused to confirm or deny that the companies that received the money were
used in Yushchenko's campaign. Financing of election campaigns by foreign
citizens is illegal in Ukraine. According to BBC's The Russian Godfathers,
Berezovsky poured millions of dollars into sustaining the spontaneous
demonstrations and was in daily contact with the key opposition leaders.
On the other hand, Russia's involvement in the election was more direct
and heavily on the side of Prime Minister Yanukovych. The extent of this
involvement is still contested but some facts are indisputable such as multiple
meetings
between Russian
president Vladimir
Putin, Kuchma and Yanukovych before and during the elections. Putin
repeatedly congratulated Yanukovych while the results were still contested,
which was soon to embarrass both parties. Yanukovych received a much more
preferential treatment in Russian media, and was surrounded by Russian
consultants known to be close to the Kremlin throughout the election cycle.
During the protests Russian media portrayed the Ukrainian protesters as
irresponsible, led astray by Western agents.
3.Presidency of Viktor Yushchenko. Domestic and foreign policy of
Ukraine.
101
Political turmoil occupied the first few years of Yushchenko’s
presidency. His first cabinet served only until September 2005, when he
dismissed all his ministers, including Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko, a
fellow leader of the Orange Revolution.
Yulia Tymoshenko
The next prime minister, Yury Yekhanurov, stayed in office only until
January 2006.
Yuriy Yekhanurov
Parliamentary elections early that year saw Yushchenko’s Our
Ukraine party finish third, behind Yanukovych’s Party of Regions and the
Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc. When a proposed coalition of the so-called Orange
parties in parliament fell apart, Yushchenko was forced to accept his rival
Yanukovych as prime minister. The ensuing power struggle between the
president and the prime minister, whose political role had been enhanced by
constitutional reforms that took effect in 2006, led Yushchenko to call for
another round of parliamentary elections in 2007. Once again the president’s
party finished behind both Yanukovych’s and Tymoshenko’s parties. This time,
however, a coalition with the Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc held together, allowing
the pro-Western Orange parties to form a government with Tymoshenko as
prime minister (December 2007). As the government continued to balance the
often conflicting goals of maintaining positive relations with Russia and gaining
102
membership in the EU, dissent between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko
contributed to the collapse of their coalition in September 2008. In October the
president dissolved parliament. Parliamentary elections, at first scheduled for
December, later were canceled, and Yushchenko’s and Tymoshenko’s parties
agreed to form a new coalition, together with the smaller Lytvyn Bloc, headed
by Volodymyr Lytvyn.
The first 100 days of Yushchenko's term, January 23, 2005 through May
1, 2005, were marked by numerous dismissals and appointments at all levels of
the executive branch. He appointed Yulia Tymoshenko as Prime Minister and
the appointment was ratified by parliament. Oleksandr Zinchenko was
appointed the head of the presidential secretariat with a nominal title of
Secretary of State. Petro Poroshenko, a cutthroat competitor of Tymoshenko for
the post of Prime Minister, was appointed Secretary of theSecurity and Defense
Council.
Presidential
Administration
building
in
central Kiev.
In August 2005, Yushchenko joined with Georgian President Mikheil
Saakashvili in signing the Borjomi Declaration, which called for the creation of
an institution of international cooperation, the Community of Democratic
Choice, to bring together the democracies and incipient democracies in the
region around the Baltic, Black, and Caspian Seas. The first meeting of
presidents and leaders to discuss the CDC took place on December 1-2, 2005 in
Kiev.
On September 8, 2005, Yushchenko fired his government, led by Yulia
Tymoshenko, after resignations and claims of corruption.
On September 9, acting Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov tried to form a
new government. His first attempt, on September 20, fell short by 3 votes of the
necessary 226, but on September 22 the parliament ratified his government with
289 votes.
Also in September 2005, former president Leonid Kravchuk accused
exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky of financing Yushchenko's presidential
election campaign, and provided copies of documents showing money transfers
from companies he said were controlled by Berezovsky to companies controlled
103
by Yushchenko's official backers. Berezovsky confirmed that he met
Yushchenko's representatives in London before the election, and that the money
was transferred from his companies, but he refused to confirm or deny that the
money was used in Yushchenko's campaign. Financing of election campaigns
by foreign citizens is illegal in Ukraine.
In August 2006, Yushchenko appointed his onetime opponent in the
presidential race, Viktor Yanukovych, to be the new Prime Minister. This was
generally regarded as indicating a rapprochement with Russia.
On April 2, 2007, Yushchenko signed an order to dissolve the
parliament and call early elections. Some consider the dissolution order illegal
because none of the conditions spelled out under Article 90 of the Constitution
of Ukraine for the president to dissolve the legislature had been met.
Yushchenko's detractors argued that he was attempting to usurp the functions of
the Constitutional Court by claiming constitutional violations by the parliament
as a pretext for his action; the parliament appealed the Constitutional Court
itself and promised to abide by its ruling. In the meantime, the parliament
continued to meet and banned the financing of any new election pending the
Constitutional Court's decision. Competing protests took place and the crisis
escalated. In May 2007 Yushchenko illegally dismissed three members of
Ukraine's constitutional Court preventing the Court from ruling on the
Constitutionality of his decree dismissing Ukraine's parliament.
Viktor
Tymoshenko
Party
Bloc
of
Yanukovych
Vyacheslav Kyrylenko
Regions
Yulia
Our Ukraine Bloc
Yulia
Tymoshenko
104
Yushchenko again tried to dissolved the parliament on October 9, 2008
by announcing parliamentary elections to be held on December 7. Yushchenko's
decree was suspended and has since lapsed. Yushchenko in defense of his
actions said, "I am deeply convinced that the democratic coalition was ruined
by one thing alone -- human ambition. The ambition of one person." Political
groups including members of his own Our Ukraine party contested the election
decree and politicians vowed to challenge it in the courts.
In December [[2008], following a back room revolt from members of our
Ukraine-Peoples' Self Defense Party a revised coalition was formed between
members of Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc (OU-PSD), the Bloc of
Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT), and the Lytvyn Bloc (LB), increasing the size of
the governing coalition by an additional 20 members.
Volodymyr Lytvyn
Yushchenko in responding to journalists questions claimed "The fact is
that the so-called coalition was formed on basis of political corruption, this
coalition will be able to work only if the Communist Party will join it. Speaking
about such a type of coalition, it is even more shameful." Victor Yushchenko
also stated that Yulia Tymoshenko’s desire to keep her job as Prime
Minister was the main motive for creating the coalition and that he wanted to
expel the OU-PSD lawmakers who supported the creation of the coalition from
the list of members of parliament.
Yuschenko claimed (March 19, 2009) that his conflicts with Tymoshenko
are not due to personal differences, but to the incompleteness of the
constitutional reforms of 2004.
On July 23, 2009 under the terms of Ukraine's Constitution the president
can not dismiss the parliament within six months from the expiration of his
five-year term of authority which ends on January 23, 2010.
105
Yushchenko meeting former United
States President George W. Bush at an April 2005 press conference.
Victor Yushchenko's support in Ukraine according to recent public
opinion polls has plummeted, from a high of 52% following his election in
2004 to below 4%, with most commentators writing off his chances of being
reelected to a second term of office.
On March 31, 2009, in his address to the nation before Parliament,
Yushchenko proposed sweeping government reform changes and an economic
and social plan to ameliorate current economic conditions in Ukraine and
apparently to respond to standing structural problems in Ukraine's political
system.
The proposal, which Yushchenko called a 'next big step forward for
fairness and prosperity in Ukraine' included the following proposals:
Yushchenko's approval rating stood at 6% as of May,
2009 according to FOM-Ukraine polling results
 Restore
financial stability in the country by implementing
the IMF reforms and a balanced budget
 Abolish parliamentary immunity
 Fair pension system based on the number of years of work and salary
received
 Pass a realistic state budget for 2009 that reduces inflation and stabilizes
the hryvna

100 hryven' (гривень)
1 hryvnia (гривня)
Have the state assume responsibility for struggling banks
106







Rejuvenate rural areas by eliminating state interference in agriculture
production
Promote Ukrainian products abroad to increase sales for our producers
European Union membership and increased trade while simultaneously
improving relations and trade with Russia
Allow voters to elect members of parliament from the areas where they
live
Open up party lists for both parliamentary and local elections
Create bicameral parliament to bring stability to our legislative branch
Reduce the number of members of parliament
Government and politics
Ukraine is a republic under a mixed semi-parliamentary semi-presidential
system with
separate legislative, executive,
and judicial branches.
The President is elected by popular vote for a five-year term and is the
formal head of state.[81]
Ukraine's legislative branch includes the 450-seat unicameral parliament,
the Verkhovna Rada.[82] The parliament is primarily responsible for the
formation of the executive branch and the Cabinet of Ministers, which is headed
by the Prime Minister.[83]
Verkhovna
Rada,
the
Parliament of Ukraine
Laws, acts of the parliament and the cabinet, presidential decrees, and
acts of the Crimean parliament may be abrogated by the Constitutional Court,
should they be found to violate the Constitution of Ukraine. Other normative
acts are subject to judicial review. The Supreme Court is the main body in the
system of courts of general jurisdiction. Local self-government is officially
guaranteed. Local councils and city mayors are popularly elected and exercise
control over local budgets. The heads of regional and district administrations
are appointed by the president.
107
Ukraine has a large number of political parties, many of which have tiny
memberships and are unknown to the general public. Small parties often join in
multi-party coalitions (electoral blocs) for the purpose of participating in
parliamentary elections.
Administrative divisions
The system of Ukrainian subdivisions reflects the country's status as
a unitary
state (as
stated
in
the country's
constitution)
with
unified legal and administrative regimes for each unit.
Ukraine is subdivided into twenty-four oblasts (provinces) and
one autonomous republic (avtonomna respublika), Crimea. Additionally, the
cities of Kiev, the capital, andSevastopol, both have a special legal status. The
24 oblasts and Crimea are subdivided into 490 raions (districts), or second-level
administrative units. The average area of a Ukrainian raion is 1,200 square
kilometres (460 sq mi); the average population of a raion is 52,000 people.[91]
Urban areas (cities) can either be subordinated to the state (as in the case
of Kiev and Sevastopol), the oblast or raion administrations, depending on their
population and socio-economic importance. Lower administrative units
include urban-type settlements, which are similar to rural communities, but are
more urbanized, including industrial enterprises, educational facilities, and
transport connections, and villages.
In total, Ukraine has 457 cities, 176 of them are labeled oblast-class, 279
smaller raion-class cities, and two special legal status cities. These are followed
by 886 urban-type settlements and 28,552 villages.[91]
Geography
At 603,700 square kilometres (233,100 sq mi) and with a coastline of
2,782 square kilometres (1,074 sq mi), Ukraine is the world's 44th-largest
country (after the Central African Republic, before Madagascar). It is the
largest whole-Europe country and the second largest country in Europe (after
the European part of Russia, before metropolitan France).[3]
The Ukrainian landscape consists mostly of fertile plains (or steppes) and
plateaus, crossed by rivers such as the Dnieper (Dnipro), Seversky
Donets, Dniester and theSouthern Buh as they flow south into the Black
Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. To the southwest, the delta of
the Danube forms the border with Romania. The country's only mountains are
the Carpathian Mountains in the west, of which the highest is the Hora
Hoverla at 2,061 metres (6,760 ft), and those on the Crimean peninsula, in the
extreme south along the coast.[92]
108
The Ai-Petri 1200 m
above mean sea level
Ukraine has a mostly temperate continental climate, although a
more Mediterranean climate is found on the southern Crimean
coast. Precipitation is disproportionately distributed; it is highest in the west and
north and lowest in the east and southeast. Western Ukraine, receives around
1,200 millimetres (47.2 in) of precipitation annually, whileCrimea receives
around 400 millimetres (15.7 in). Winters vary from cool along the Black Sea to
cold farther inland. Average annual temperatures range from 5.5 °C (41.9 °F)–
7 °C (44.6 °F) in the north, to 11 °C (51.8 °F)–13 °C (55.4 °F) in the south.[93]
Religion
The dominant religion in Ukraine is Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which
is currently split between three Church bodies: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
- Kiev Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church autonomous church body
under the Patriarch of Moscow, and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox
Church.[114]
A distant second by the number of the followers is the Eastern
Rite Ukrainian
Greek
Catholic
Church,
which
practices
a
similar liturgical and spiritual tradition as Eastern
Orthodoxy,
but is
in communion with the Holy See of the Roman Catholic Church and recognises
the primacy of the Pope as head of the Church.[153]
Additionally, there are 863 Roman Catholic communities, and
474 clergy members serving some one million Roman Catholics in
Ukraine.[114] The group forms some 2.19 percent of the population and consists
mainly of ethnic Poles and Hungarians, who live predominantly in the western
regions of the country.
Protestant Christians also form around 2.19 percent of the population.
Protestant numbers have grown greatly since Ukrainian independence.
The Evangelical Baptist Union of Ukraine is the largest group, with more than
150,000 members and about 3000 clergy. The second largest Protestant church
is the Ukrainian Church of Evangelical faith (Pentecostals) with 110000
members and over 1500 local churches and over 2000 clergy, but there also
109
exist other Pentecostal groups and unions and together all Pentecostals are over
300,000, with over 3000 local churches. Also there are many Pentecostal high
education schools such as the Lviv Theological Seminary and the Kiev Bible
Institute.
Other
groups
include Calvinists, Jehovah's
Witnesses, Lutherans, Methodists and Seventh-day Adventists. The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) is also present.[114]
There are an estimated 500,000 Muslims in Ukraine, and about 300,000
of them are Crimean Tatars.[citation needed] There are 487 registered Muslim
communities, 368 of them on the Crimean peninsula. In addition, some 50,000
Muslims live in Kiev; mostly foreign-born.[154] The Jewish community is a tiny
fraction of what it was before World War II. The cities with the largest
populations of Jews in 1926 were Odessa, 154,000 or 36.5% of the total
population; and Kiev, 140,500 or 27.3%.[155] The 2001 census indicated that
there are 103,600 Jews in Ukraine, although community leaders claimed that
the population could be as large as 300,000. There are no statistics on what
share of the Ukrainian Jews are observant, but Orthodox Judaism has the
strongest
presence
in
Ukraine.
Smaller Reform and Conservative
[114]
Jewish (Masorti) communities exist as well.
"What religious
group do you belong to?". Sociology poll by Razumkov Centre about the religious
situation in Ukraine (2006) Atheist or do not belong to any church UOC - Kiev
Patriarchate
Church
UOC
(Moscow
Patriarchate)
UAOC
Ukrainian
Greek
Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
Demographics
According to the Ukrainian Census of 2001, ethnic Ukrainians make up
77.8%
of
the
population.
Other
significant
ethnic
groups
are Russians (17.3%), Belarusians (0.6%),Moldovans (0.5%), Crimean
Tatars (0.5%), Bulgarians (0.4%), Hungarians (0.3%), Romanians (0.3%), Poles
110
(0.3%), Jews (0.2%), Armenians (0.2%), Greeks (0.2%)
and Tatars(0.2%).[134] The industrial regions in the east and southeast are the
most heavily populated, and about 67.2 percent of the population lives in urban
areas[135][136].
Ethnic
Ukrainians
in
Ukraine (2001)
Language
According to the Constitution, the state language of Ukraine
is Ukrainian. Russian, which was the de facto official language of the Soviet
Union, is widely spoken, especially in eastern and southern Ukraine. According
to the 2001 census, 67.5 percent of the population declared Ukrainian as their
native language and 29.6 percent declared Russian.[120]Most native Ukrainian
speakers know Russian as a second language.
These details result in a significant difference across different survey
results, as even a small restating of a question switches responses of a
significant group of people.[f]Ukrainian is mainly spoken in western and central
Ukraine. In western Ukraine, Ukrainian is also the dominant language in cities
(such as Lviv). In central Ukraine, Ukrainian and Russian are both equally used
in cities, with Russian being more common in Kiev,[f] while Ukrainian is the
dominant language in rural communities. In eastern and southern Ukraine,
Russian is primarily used in cities, and Ukrainian is used in rural areas.
111
Percentage
of
native
Ukrainian speakers by subdivision.
For a large part of the Soviet era, the number of Ukrainian speakers
declined from generation to generation, and by the mid-1980s, the usage of the
Ukrainian language in public life had decreased significantly.[121] Following
independence, the government of Ukraine began following a policy
of Ukrainisation,[122] to increase the use of Ukrainian, while discouraging
Russian, which has supposedly been banned or restricted in the media and
films.[123][124] This would, in principle, mean that Russian-language programmes
need a Ukrainian translation or subtitles.
Percentage
of
native
Russian speakers by subdivision.
According to the Constitution of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea,
Ukrainian is the only state language of the republic. However, the republic's
constitution specifically recognises Russian as the language of the majority of
its population and guarantees its usage 'in all spheres of public life'. Similarly,
the Crimean Tatar language (the language of 12 percent of population of
112
Crimea[125]) is guaranteed a special state protection as well as the 'languages of
other ethnicities'. Russian speakers constitute an overwhelming majority of the
Crimean population (77 percent), with Ukrainian speakers comprising just
10.1 percent, and Crimean Tatar speakers 11.4 percent.[126] But in everyday life
the majority of Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians in Crimea use Russian. [127]
Percentage of people with Ukrainian as their native language according to 2001
census (in regions).
113
Ukraine
produces the fourth largest number of post-secondary graduates in Europe,
while being ranked seventh in population.
Ethnic Ukrainians in Ukraine (2001)
114
Ukrainian administrative divisions by monthly salary
About number and composition population of UKRAINE
by data All-Ukrainian population census'2001 data
115
The peculiarity of the national structure of the population of Ukraine is its
multinational composition. According to All-Ukrainian population census data,
the representatives of more than 130 nationalities and ethnic groups live on the
territory of the country.
The data about the most numerous nationalities of Ukraine are mentioned
below:
Total
as % to the result
2001
(thousand
as % to 1989
2001
1989
persons)
Ukrainians
37541.7
77.8
72.7
100.3
8334.1
17.3
22.1
73.4
Belarussians
275.8
0.6
0.9
62.7
Moldavians
258.6
0.5
0.6
79.7
Russians
Crimean Tatars
248.2
0.5
0.0
in 5.3 times
more
Bulgarians
204.6
0.4
0.5
87.5
Hungarians
156.6
0.3
0.4
96.0
Romanians
151.0
0.3
0.3
112.0
Poles
144.1
0.3
0.4
65.8
Jews
103.6
0.2
0.9
21.3
Armenians
99.9
0.2
0.1
in 1.8 times
more
Greeks
91.5
0.2
0.2
92.9
Tatars
73.3
0.2
0.2
84.4
Gipsies
47.6
0.1
0.1
99.3
Azerbaijanians
45.2
0.1
0.0
122.2
Georgians
34.2
0.1
0.0
145.3
Germans
33.3
0.1
0.1
88.0
Gagausians
31.9
0.1
0.1
99.9
Other
177.1
0.4
0.4
83.9
The part of Ukrainians in the national structure of population of region is the
largest. it accounts for 3.754.700 people. or 77.8% of the population. During the
years that have passed since the census of the population ‘1989. the number of
116
Ukrainians has increased by 0.3% and their part among other citizens of
Ukraine has increased by 5.1 percentage points.
Russians are the second numerous nation of Ukraine. Since 1989 their
number has decreased by 26.6% and at the date of the census it accounted for
8.334.100 people. The part of Russians in total population has decreased by 4.8
percentage points and accounted for 17.3%.
References:
117
1. Декларація про державний суверенітет України. Прийнята Верховною
Радою
Української РСР 16 липня 1990 року. - К. 1991.
2. Акт проголошення незалежності України, прийнятий Верховною
Радою
України 24 серпня 1991 року. - К. 1991.
3. Конституція України. Прийнята на п'ятій сесії Верховної Ради
України
28
червня 1996 року. - К. 1996.
4. Крип'якевич І. П. Історія України. - Львів, 1990.
5. Полонська-Василенко Н. Історія України. Т. 1-2.-К. 1992.
6. Andrew Wilson. The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation. Yale University
Press;
2nd edition (2002).
7. Anna Reid. Borderland: A Journey Through the History of
Ukraine. London, Orion Books; 4th impression (1998, preface 2003).
8. Mykhailo Hrushevsky. History of Ukraine-Rus’ in 9 volumes.
9. Orest Subtelny. Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto
Press (1988).
10. Paul Robert Magocsi. A History of Ukraine. Toronto: University of
Toronto Press (1996).
118